In a society where men and women athletes were valued equally, female basketball players would not need to travel overseas in the offseason to earn extra money. Professional players, whether men or women, would earn good salaries here at home.
But that’s not the society we live in. Instead, there is such an astounding gender pay gap among professional basketball players that the lowest-paid male players (who make about $1 million a year) earn roughly four times as much as the highest-paid women players (who make about $230,000 annually). Top NBA stars fetch more than $40 million, but even middling players make millions. While the median NBA salary is about $6 million, the median WNBA salary is about $73,000.
The lower pay has led many WNBA athletes to play two seasons — one at home and another abroad, where they can make more than at home. Russian teams reportedly pay WNBA players more than $1 million a year.
.jpg?w=600)
