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The problem with equal pay
The problem with equal pay
Unequal pay men and women
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Imagine a man going to work on the farm every day. He works endlessly for hours and hours tending to the crops, feeding the animals in the hot scorching sun, wishing he could sit down and take a break… a break that just never comes. He will work until his swollen and bruised feet give out under him. He is working to put food on the table. He is working so that he won’t have to watch his wife and kids die. Now imagine a different man, he is a NFL player. He will work hard to emerge victorious. Now which man should be paid more? The farmer should, but reality is far from that. The farmer will make just enough money to put food on the table. The football player will make far more than that, he will probably make the same amount of money that the farmer will make in his entire lifetime. The salaries of professional athletes are not justified because an athlete’s job is to entertain people, because the money is wasted and because other important occupations do not pay as much.
Athletes earn millions of dollars while performing. But why is that? An athlete’s purpose is doing well in playing their sport so that they can entertain us. And just how hard do athletes even work? NFL players are some of the highest paid athletes in the world. According to Teen Ink "NFL football players, some of the highest paid professional athletes, only play sixteen regular season games, four preseason games and a maximum of four post season games, giving them a total of 24 games on the season." They play 24 games and they are paid tremendous amounts of money. And why is that? An athlete only has one job… to entertain people. All athletes are good in just one thing and that’s playing well at a sport that they should be playing well in. There are people out ...
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When looking into the history of our culture, there are many subtopics that fall under the word, “history.” Topics such as arts and literature, food, and media fall into place. Among these topics reside sports. Since the beginning of time, sports have persisted as an activity intertwined with the daily life of people. Whether it is a pick-up game of football in the backyard, or catching an evening game at the local stadium, sports have become the national pastime. According to Marcus Jansen of the Sign Post, more specifically, baseball is America’s national pastime, competing with other sports (Jansen 1). Providing the entertainment that Americans pay top dollar for, live the role models, superstars, and celebrities that put on a jersey as their job. As said in an article by Lucas Reilly, Americans spend close to $25.4 billion dollars on professional sports (Reilly 4). The people that many children want to be when they grow up are not the firefighters or astronauts told about in bed time stories. These dream jobs or fantasies have become swinging a bat or tossing a football in front of millions of screaming fans. When asked why so many dream of having such job, the majority will respond with a salary related answer. In today’s day and age, the average athlete is paid more than our own president. The cold hard facts show that in professional sports, the circulation of money is endless. Certain teams in professional baseball and football are worth over millions of dollars. Consequently, the teams who are worth more are able to spend more. The issue that arises with this philosophy is virtually how much more? League managers, team owners and other sports officials have sought out a solution to the surfacing problem. Is it fair to let...
Players do not deserve the money they receive. There are people who do much more than the players do. Why do teachers not get paid millions of dollars to teach kids? Some of those kids end up going on to become professional athletes. Police officers and firemen risk their lives to keep people safe and most of them do not even make any more than 95 thousand dollars a year (Megerian). These athletes get fined more money than that and hand it over like someone just asked them for one dollar. Players have all of this money and do not even do anything worth earning it. Why do they get this money? It is because fans value athletes more than the important things in life like education and family.
Imagine this you are the star player on your college football team and you get your fifth concussion causing you to be out of sports the rest of your life due to health reason and when you are 40 you get alzheimer's causing you to have life brain problems and having to spend lots of money in rehab and you never feel the same ever again and are in major det and only your are in and out of jobs because of your brain so your wife has to support you with the money to help cure it while you get lost easily when driving and can't remember stuff from the day before like why am I one this plane while heading to get therapy for your brain. This is why college athletes should be paid they should because they are too busy to have a job, The NCAA has enough money and They can put in salary caps so everybody get paid fair. But other say they shouldn't because it ruins their sentimental values and family history.
Critics often argue that some people don’t think any athlete is worth that much money. Admittedly, it is a lot of money. However, they deserve it because of all of the work they put in. For example, Ronald Blum from earlier in the speech, illustrates, “In a $9 billion industry propelled by ballpark luxury suites and premium tickets, regional sports networks and streaming video, more than half the major leaguers are millionaires.” What Blum is saying is that the money they earn is made by themselves and by how many people go to their games. Linn-Benton Community College adds, “I agree that people that make the biggest difference in this world should be paid more. Job titles from Bhagat's list included police officers, firefighters, doctors, and teachers. Yes, all of these occupations greatly improve our well being and our society as a whole, but is it the professional athlete's fault that these occupations are not paid what they are deserved? Does the fact that teachers, police officers, and firefighters are underpaid have any connection to professional sports at all? No, not in the slightest bit.” Linn-Benton’s point is that sports do not take any money away from other jobs. Ronald Blum also notes, “Most athletes’ money is self-earned.” Blum is suggesting that that athletes’
6) Clark, Liz. “Athletes Say They Deserve to Be Paid.” Charlotte Observer. (Charlotte, N.C.). April 3, 1994: pg. 4G. Sports. Eleanor Goldstein. Vol. 4. Boca Raton: SIRS, 1994. Art. 65.
Peyton Manning makes over 18 million dollars in a single year for going out in the public eye and playing a simple sport for the amusement of others. That’s more than most people can make in a lifetime. Should we really be paying Peyton Manning 18 million to play a 16 game season, when others are barely making $17,000 to support themselves? That is isn’t practical or fair at all considering a firefighter makes an average of $43,000 a year. Yes, that number is true. A man who goes out and risks his life on a daily basis to protect others makes a significantly less salary than a pro athlete that entertains the masses. We are just barely scratching the surface of this dilemma. Alex Rodriguez earned $33 million dollars last year in Major League Baseball. How could someone ever spend $33 million on himself? It’s crazy to think America puts most of its attention and money into entertainment, when people are homeless, starving, or living on welfare. But as long as LeBron James can spend $3,000 on a suit and tie he’ll probably wear once and play head to head against other athletes, are satisfied. There’s a lot of money being circulated between giant franchises in the sports world, but honestly how much do you really need to be paid to live a comfortable, sustainable life.
Do you think professional athletes are overpaid? You might think they earn more than what they are worth for playing half a year, but athletes have many things which contribute to their salary. Some of these things include their earnings from endorsements, ticket sales, performance, merchandise, their social contributions, and TV ratings. Although there are many factors that contribute to their salary, professional athletes may be overpaid because as a society, we contribute to their success. So, in the end, part of the athlete’s salary comes from the people who support the sports in the first place.
Keown, Tim. “Athletes Work Hard for their Money.” Sports.ESPN.Go.com. 8 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 Mar,
Americans believe that athletes, celebrities, and CEOs are the highest paid jobs in America. This belief is true however the average income of these three jobs is nowhere near what the perception is. Athletes are the most confusing when it comes to pay since people do not factor in that an average professional is only 4.85 years, NFL is 3.5 years, MLB is 5.6 years, NBA is 4.8, and NHL is 5.5 years, (RSVLTS, 2013) United States Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that an average income for “athletes and sport competitors” was only $47,710 (BLS, 2017). People believe that athletes are only the stars you see on television, but this is not the case. Athletes are risking their health for that paycheck. They spend a majority of their lives in the gym or on
Every day, people around the world complain about professional athletes salaries. Even though the top athletes make millions of dollars every year, the majority of athletes do not make any more than the average working class citizen. There are also many risks along with the job, and job security is very unstable. Expenses and taxes also limit the amount of money an athlete makes. Tax rates are extremely high for the men and women who participate in professional sports.
Athletes Salary Money doesn’t grow on trees, except in the life of a pro athlete! Some professional athletes make up to 110 million dollars per season, while teachers, who provide education to the younger generation, struggle to pay their bills. I strongly believe that professional athletes should not make as much money as they do when other job occupations are more beneficial and do more to help, strengthen, and support our communities. To begin with, often, athletes who know ahead of time, that they have a good chance of making it in the pros, skip over college. In the society we live in today, jobs do not come easy to people who don’t have a degree.
Sport has always entertained and influenced our lives. It creates dreams for children and goals for adults. However, many fans are oblivious to the millions they pocket each year. It is without doubt that our sports stars are grossly overpaid. Their annual earnings exceed those we make in a lifetime, even when compared to highly qualified professions. Despite the money factor, we sometimes question the values that are emphasized.
In today’s society many will argue whether or not professional athletes are overpaid. In the present time athletes are being paid phenomenally large amounts of money for their entertainment. It is my claim that all professional athletes are overpaid because they do not offer society an essential function that improves or enhances our world in comparison to other professionals such as medical doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Society does not value entertainment enough to warrant such high salaries such as those of many professional athletes. There is no reason that these athletes should demand these tremendous amounts of money. This is why you have to put into question their reasoning for demanding such high salaries.
Firstly, I think that entertainers’ athletes are paid so much because they deserve it. An actor isn’t going just wake up one day and say, “I think I’m going to be an A-list act...
As entertainers, athletes are paid for fan satisfaction. The more fans that want to see an athlete perform, the more the athlete is paid. In fact, most athletes, even those who make millions of dollars for each flubbed fly ball, dropped pass, and missed free throw, feel they probably deserve even higher salaries; the reason being that they’re still in demand. While certain athletes may never bring a championship ring to their team, or even bring home a winning season, those athletes will always pack the stands. Fans in the stands translate into ticket sales. Ticket sales can potentially lead to national television broadcasts. Inevitably, the formula of ticket sales plus national television broadcasts leads to massive revenue, and this is how owners and organizations can afford to pay players like Michael Jordan $25 Million for his retiring season alone. However, how does society (as a whole) benefit from these over-inflated salaries? In short, it doesn’t.