Ask McFartnuggets: “If Women Can’t Get Paid as Much as Men Why Not Just Lower Wages For Men?”

Dear McFartnuggets: 
I’m totally for wage equality for women. I want there to be a day when women make as much as men do, but that looks like that might never happen. Wouldn’t it then be easier to cut the salaries of men so that they get paid the same as women? Then we have wage equality and that’d probably be easier than finding extra money that probably doesn’t exist to pay women with. Wage inequality is just insane these days.The average salary for a woman basketball player in the WNBA is $75,000 and the average salary for a male basketball player in the NBA is $5,150,000. Obviously I know there’s no money to pay the WNBA players $5.15 million so why not just cut NBA players’ salaries to $75,000. They’re just playing a game for a living for christ sake anyway! -- Rachelle from Newport, Rhode Island

Dear Rachelle:

If we cut male wages I don’t think that would actually benefit anyone besides the companies that are paying wages. It’s economically better for men to be vastly overpaid than to have the companies just keep the money, but from an equality standpoint I do agree that would be a good idea. The issue with the WNBA players ties into the phrase “Equal pay for equal work.” They’re not exactly doing “equal work” considering WNBA games are insanely boring compared to NBA games. There just aren’t enough viewers and advertisers and networks aren’t willing to put as much money into the brand which results in lower pay for the workers. I do think that professional athletes as a whole are overpaid, but that’s a decision we as a society are making to enjoy these sports. We pour our money into tickets and the products being advertised during games. We as a society ultimately dictate how much these athletes, male and female are making. If there are going to be changes made they have to come from us, not the companies. You have an interesting idea, but I don’t think it would work.

We can't realistically expect female football players to get paid like their male counterparts.

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