Black Ferns contracts in context
ANALYSIS: Top Black Ferns rugby players will be earning roughly $33 per hour when they are training for or playing their sport.
Those at the bottom end of the newly negotiated professional performance programme’s tiered payment spectrum will be earning about $25.73 an hour.
But those wages come while committing an average of 19.8 hours per week to their code, including regional trainings, games, and wider Black Ferns camps, all while juggling existing work or study.
The world champion Black Ferns are essentially making their first foray into semi-professional rugby. The contracts aren’t enough for players to dedicate all of their time to rugby, though they weren’t designed as such.
In a summary of the new Black Ferns Memorandum of Understanding, it states players ‘‘will be required to commit around 10-14 hours per week for rugby training, including weekend and club training and playing’’.
It goes on to state that players should not be training between the hours of 8.30am and 5pm on weekdays for more than eight hours per week, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
They are expected to train after work or outside normal study hours.
Of course, those work hours will need some tweaking when Black Ferns camps are on.
For approximately 50 days this year, the players are expected to assemble in national team camps, for which they will be paid $2000 a week. While their Black Ferns pay cheque’s will take a bump for their efforts, it will require time off their regular days jobs.
Financially they’ll be better off for it, but they’ll require understanding employers.
They could always take four weeks leave to attend camps, but that still requires at least three weeks of unpaid leave.
It’s far from an ideal situation. As far as other female New Zealand athletes go, Black Ferns players are among the highest paid.
Black Sticks and Football Ferns players are understood to be earning considerably less than the new Black Ferns contracts.
White Ferns cricketers have a similar deal, with the likes of Suzie Bates among the highest earners on approximately $40,000 per year.
On top of that, the likes of Bates, Sophie Devine and Amy Satterthwaite will earn good money in Twenty20 competitions in Australia and England.
Fellow rugby player Portia Woodman will have a tier one Black Ferns Sevens contract worth $60,000 a year, showing sevens is still the biggest money earner for women in rugby.
On top of that, she can earn $2000 for every World Series tournament she attends, and $1000 for any other tournament.
This year, Woodman should earn upwards of $70,000.
Maria Tutaia is among the highest paid netballers in New Zealand, on roughly $130,000 a year, but it doesn’t compare to the peaks that can be hit in individual sports.
Over the course of her career, Marina Erakovic has won $3,560,815 in prizemoney. That works out to an average of $273,908 per year over the course of her 13 year career in the WTA.
Erakovic has nothing on golfer Lydia Ko, who raked in $1,629,900 in prizemoney in 2017. She has made $11,773,962 over the course of her short career.
The Black Ferns contracts are also pocket change in comparison to other New Zealand Rugby contracts.
Kieran Read is earning approximately $1 million a season with NZR, while a top ranked Super Rugby player is paid a retainer of $195,000.
A top level Mitre 10 Cup player is also earning good money, on $55,000 for essentially three months work.
There are other benefits on top of their payments, with the Black Ferns given full medical insurance, life insurance and trauma cover, as well as contributions to a player savings scheme, and Kiwisaver.