Over the many years of pro-sports men and women have been paid drastically different wages, men have been paid anywhere from 15% to 100% more than female athletes. This stems from the gender pay gap that has been going on for many years. The average pay currently for men major league soccer players is around 60,000$, while for women it is 40,000$. To settle this gap there should be a baseline pay in every sport, that no matter your gender you get paid the same starting wages.

Some may argue that men’s sports bring in more revenue which is why they get paid more but, from 2016 to 2018 women’s major league soccer brought in 50.8 million dollars while mens’ only brought in 49.9 million dollars. Yet they still have a significant pay gap. This shows that even if women’s sports have brought in more revenue their sports are not valued the same. Women’s soccer also has their games playing at odd times on TV making it more difficult for viewers to watch, while men’s soccer is usually at convenient times for viewers. Another argument is that the same sports played by different genders are an entirely different game, but in the end, they have still labeled the same sport so the starting pay should be the same. Marketing for gendered sports also is a big factor in viewership, men’s soccer tends to have a much larger budget for marketing while women’s soccer usually has half of the men’s budget.

The world people live in today continues to progress in some areas and regress in others, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 set in motion an everlasting debate on what careers should have equal pay and which ones should have different pay between genders. The wages in pro-sports should start the same for all genders in each specific sport, and as you gain more viewership and games or competitions won you should have the opportunity to earn more. There should not be an average 20,000$ pay difference between a gendered sport. There is more than enough data to provide a plausible case for there to be equal pay in professional sports.