In today’s world, with football as a sport only growing in popularity, the introduction of female football teams has become increasingly successful. Despite its success, there is an undeniable gender pay gap in the footballing world.
On average, a male footballer in the English Premier League earns £50,817 a week (BBC, 2019), compared to the highest paid female player, earning just £35,000 in a year (Manchester Evening News). Evidently there is a huge wage differential, but is it justified?
Firstly, it is important to compare the gender pay cap across industries, to identify whether football is the worst offender. In the UK public sector, the average difference in wage is 24.5%, and in the private sector it is 36.5% (Jones, 2018). This pales in comparison to that in football which currently stands at a whopping 83.42% (Onita, 2018). Considering this, it is clear there are factors causing this extortionate difference.
Men’s football, for whatever reason, is hugely more popular across the globe and as a result, the game itself draws in billions more pounds than the female game. Inevitably, with this greater income, clubs can afford to pay the male players a higher wage.
Moreover, it has been revealed that “firms with foreign owners on average display a substantially larger gender wage gap than domestic owned firms” (Vahter, 2018) which could explain the issue in British football, with the majority of clubs being owned by wealthy international billionaires who potentially share different cultural views.
Despite this, there is an argument to discount this view, being that: could clubs use the income generated by men’s football to help support the women’s game and help the two become more equal?
By now it must surely be a worldwide aim to help increase gender equality and equity throughout football, in order to continue to encourage participation and the growth of both games.
The Shift in Football from Sport to Business 