Sport has always been seen as being part of unequal pay in terms of an industry not paying women as well as men in the same categories of sport. This is an overview of pay inequality in sport.
Most women in sport had gone without any financial rewards for years, even when they were at the top of their game in New Zealand. It’s known throughout the country that women almost purely play sport just for the love and passion of the game and not for making a great living.
Some select few have been able to use sport as their full-time career and made a good living from it. Many NZ women sports players have jobs outside of their professional sports careers to pay the bills; playing sports seems like a hobby.
The NZ government has largely been putting more money into women’s sports to try and solve the growing issue, which has sparked many sports organizations to have a change of heart towards unequal pay.
Many sportswomen are losing out on the time and commitment needed to play at an elite level. The Black Ferns are now officially a paid women’s sports team in New Zealand, being paid by the New Zealand Rugby Federation. Due to the federation now paying the Black Ferns, it’s known that they are now the only large sports organization that is paying women athletes.
The contracted Black Ferns team members are now being paid up to $20 000 in retainers, whereas the All-Blacks men’s ruby team pays some of the team members up to $1 million a season as well as $7500 each week. Overall, pay an All-Black rugby player can expect is over $185 000 per season.
With the pay gap seen in sport, it’s at least inevitable for things to get back to normal as there are already many amendments working towards helping women to reach larger pay in sport. This will be done by further pushing women’s division sports onto fans allowing the women to play more games and get paid more.