How the highest-paid female athletes compare to the men in their sports

Jewel Loyd, USA, Basketball

The salary difference between the NBA and the WNBA is astounding. The maximum salary for the best WNBA players, such as Loyd and Chiney Ogwumike, is only $117,500, with most players in the league making less than $80,000 per year. This compares to the NBA max contract which is paying Stephen Curry $34.7 million to play for the Golden State Warriors.

When the 25% revenue split for WNBA players doesn’t help their earning power, it is the giant TV deal boasted by the men that makes for the disparity.

Claressa Shields, USA, Boxing

With Floyd Mayweather earning $285 million between June 2017 and June 2018, and Mexican boxer Saul “Canelo” Alvarez signing an insane TV deal worth a minimum of $365 million over the next five years, it is going to to be impossible for a female boxer to ever get close to those figures.

This is actually the biggest pay disparity anywhere on our list, with top stars like Shields earning as little as $50,000 a year through her boxing endeavors.

Georgia Hall, England, Golf

The 22-year-old Hall is an up-and-coming name in the world of women’s golf. Her British Open check of almost $500,000 was one of many earned by Hall on the tour in 2018.

Hall is also notable for her willingness to bring up the gender pay disparity. When Francesco Molinari won the men’s version of the same event he took home a check for $1.8 million, over $1.3 million more than Hall. This level of disparity in the same tournament shows why it is so hard for women to narrow the gap.

Alex Morgan, USA, Soccer

The ultra-marketable Morgan made $450,000 in 2018, with endorsement deals from the likes of Coca-Cola and Nike boosting her base salary past that of other female soccer stars.

While Morgan is certainly not playing at the poverty level, her salary is dwarfed by that of the top men. Lionel Messi leads the way for the male gender, making an estimated $111 million last season playing for Barcelona.

Ronda Rousey, USA, MMA/WWE

Rousey is an interesting entry on this list given that her earnings have shifted more towards the world of sports entertainment than from anything she made in the Octagon. Her final UFC fight earned Rousey $3 million for just showing up and losing, while in 2015 she made $14 million in total earnings.

MMA, more than any other sport, requires it’s top athletes to be marketable. That is why Rousey out-earned many male stars, with one notable exception being the equally opinionated and divisive Conor McGregor ($38 million).

Ariya Jutanugarn, Thailand, Golf

The top female golfer in the world in 2018 was Jutanugarn, who took her career earnings to over $7.3 million with a dominant season where she took home over $2.7 million in prize money. Adding in sponsorship deals and other endorsements on top and Jutanugarn made over $5 million in 2018.

While it took the Thai golfer having an outstanding season to make that money, Tiger Woods is still the king of golf earners despite rarely even being in contention in tournaments. Woods made over $45 million last year, taking his career earnings north of $1.5 BILLION.

 Danica Patrick, USA, Nascar

Danica Patrick may have stepped away from full-time racing at the end of the 2017 season, and retired from the sport full time in 2018, but she still makes this list because of the $3 million she earned from race winnings in the highly lucrative stock car series at the back end of 2017.

That, plus her $4.5 million in sponsorship deals, still falls far below the $22 million earned over the same period by Dale Earnhardt Jr., a driver who dominates merchandise sales despite only posting one top-five finish all season.

 P.V. Sindhu, India, Badminton

Sindhu is unique on this list as a woman that out earns her male counterparts in a very niche sport.

Winning an Olympic silver medal in 2016 made Sindhu a household name in her native India and opened up sponsorship deals for the athlete the likes of which had never been seen in badminton before. She made $8.5 million last year, with just $500,000 coming from prize money and a massive $8 million from her endorsement partners.

 Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark, Tennis

The first of two tennis players on our list, Wozniacki made $13 million between June 2017 and June 2018. Consistently one of the best players on the WTA Tour over that time period, Wozniacki made $7 million on the court to go along with $6 million she made from endorsement deals with sponsors like Adidas, Rolex, and Ovvo Optics.

Her total earnings of $13 million pale in comparison to the amount of money earned by the top players on the men’s tour. Rafael Nadal led the way for the men, picking up over $77 million over the same time period.

Serena Williams, USA, Tennis

Williams has been the highest-paid and most influential female athlete for the last three years running. She managed to maintain that spot this year, despite taking home relatively little ($62,000) in winnings after taking most of the year off because of her pregnancy and childbirth.

Williams earned $18.1 million over the last 12 months because of here unmatched sponsorship deals in women’s sport. Even with this number, she still made less than a quarter than Nadal’s total over the same time period.