Invest in women’s sport, and watch the pay gap close
Iwas once consulting with a United States (US)-based network about a piece on Indian sport. After an hour of me talking about our sporting ecosystem, they asked me, “Where is the athlete activism in your country? Where is the collective bargaining?”. I smiled ruefully, and said, “It doesn’t exist. Indian sports do not have players’ associations.” There were a few jaws on the floor.
Players’ unions are the norm in western sport. It’s important to understand this fact when talking about the landmark equal pay deal announced by the US Soccer Federation (USSF). That follows a long legal battle between USSF and their women’s team. Highlights: Both men’s and women’s teams will add their World Cup prize money into a combined pool, from where payment to all players will be made equally. This counterbalances one of the biggest pay disparities in global sport: The upcoming men’s football World Cup has prize money of $440 million, whereas the women’s tournament has prize money of $60 million. A share of commercial revenue will also be split equally between the teams, meaning the men will benefit from the success and popularity of the women’s team, who are current World Cup champions. The men did not qualify for the last World Cup.
Critically, this agreement was brokered by the respective players’ associations of the men’s and women’s teams, who collectively bargained on their behalf with USSF. Similarly, in 2019, the men’s and women’s soccer teams of Australia collectively bargained an agreement ensuring pay parity. In this process, the women even went on a united strike once in 2015.
Collective bargaining doesn’t exist in Indian sport, and it’s important to understand why. In western nations, sport is a private affair. Each sporting body generates its revenue through sponsorships, ticket sales and broadcast deals. And besides the national body, there are other private competitions that pay players to compete. One of the reasons footballers Megan Rapinoe and her teammates can take her employers, USSF, to court is that she has other employers. Female soccer players play in the National Women’s Soccer League, a private competition. USSF is invested in (and until recently managed) the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), but does not own it.
Essentially, these athletes are not in a monopoly market. The US, one of the most successful countries in the history of the Olympics, has no sports minister.
On the other hand, the ministry of youth affairs and sports is the reason why most Indian sports exist. Each Olympic sport is run by a sports federation, which receives most, if not all, of its funding from the government. Indian athletes operate in a monopoly market.
Add to this, public sector companies are the biggest employers of sportspersons across India. With little or no privately-run sport, it is hard for Indian athletes to unionise, given they would be pitting themselves against the only buyer in the market.
Ironically, the gender pay gap is one of the less pressing concerns in top-level Indian Olympic sports, and here I’ll quote from the Hindi film, Dangal :“Gold to gold hota hai, chora lave ya chori. (Gold is gold, if won by a man or a woman).” If two Indians win the same medal, one man and one woman, the government cannot vary their cash rewards based on gender without inviting a backlash. Similarly, the rules for sports-based promotions in public sector companies are the same for men and women. Olympic sports are required to follow the Olympic charter, which enshrines gender equality, and this influences the distribution of funding.
A bigger problem in most Olympic sports is funding itself. For instance, the Thomas and Uber Cups, the men’s and women’s team badminton championships, have the same prize money for both genders. Nothing.
The gender pay gap is much more of an issue in privately-run sport. Take cricket, for instance, where the highest-paid female cricketer earns less than half the lowest-paid male cricketer. A women’s Indian Premier League is long overdue, despite being widely believed to be a financially sound proposition. And private, televised leagues exist for men’s volleyball and men’s kabaddi, but not for women.
We must acknowledge that the Indian sporting ecosystem is unique, and devise solutions accordingly. Olympic sport needs infrastructural and cultural change to make India a sporting superpower. Private sport needs to invest in women’s sport, and watch the market bridge the gap.