Picture earning $6.8 million right after your freshman year of college by playing the sport you love. This is the reality for DeAndre Ayton, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. He signed with the Phoenix Suns and will earn over $6.8 million in his first season.
Also, LeBron James just signed a four-year $153.3 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the No. 1 WNBA draft pick, A’ja Wilson, will earn only $55,052 her first year playing for the Las Vegas Aces. These two salaries are not even close. Wilson tweeted her frustrations about LeBron’s deal and the unequal pay gap between male and female athletes saying, “154 Mill…must be nice. We over here looking for a M.”
According to Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes, the average salary for a professional men’s basketball player is $6.2 million, in comparison to $71,635 for a woman. The most a WNBA player can earn is $115,000, but the minimum for NBA is $838,464. 
Some credit this problem to be the association’s revenues. The NBA brings in much more than the WNBA. The NBA’s average attendance in 2018 was 17,987 people per game, and the WBNA had an average of 6,721 per game. This is a huge gap. 10,000 more fans buying seats, concessions and merchandise is definitely a reason the NBA and their teams have more money than their female counterparts. However, is this a reason for a multi-million dollar pay gap?
According to economics professor Dave Berri, “WNBA player salaries constitute 22 percent of league revenue, while NBA player salaries amount to roughly 50 percent of league revenues,” as reported by Nancy Lough of The Conversation. He went further, saying, “the fact that NBA players get a much larger piece of the revenue pie does seem to say something about how each respective league values its players.”
The problem lies within how much NBA players are paid. Six million dollars is a little much for Ayton’s first year in the league. He will also end up making more thanks to advertisements and endorsements.
Tom Huddlesston Jr of CNBC estimates he “could be paid as much as $8 million” his rookie season. The Suns have no idea the impact he will have in the professional sports industry, they are just going off of his collegiate performance.
While I believe the NBA could pay their players less, there is no excuse for the difference between the NBA minimum and WNBA maximum to be a whopping $723,464. These ballplayers are playing the same sport, have the same caliber of play within in their leagues and are very impressive.
The only difference is their gender. I understand the NBA’s revenue is much higher than the WNBA, which makes sense. Ultimately, are professional sports punishing women for being women?
This pay gap occurs outside of professional basketball. As for the U.S.’ National Soccer Team, the women are more successful than the men, but still suffer from a serious gap. According to the Karen Yourish of the New York Times, “The women’s team earned $2 million for winning the World Cup while the men made $9 million without advancing beyond the round of 16 in 2014.” The women brought home a World Cup win, yet there is still a huge pay difference. 
The solution is not definite. The question remains: should men be paid less or should women be paid higher? Regardless of which question you prefer, this gap is still a huge problem and a disgrace to female athletes. All these players value the sport they play and have the skill set to play at this level, which is a tremendous honor. This honor should not be dulled by the amount, or lack there of, their salaries.