High Salaries Don't Reflect the Worth of the Job

Professional athletes paid too much: High salaries don't reflect the worth of the job.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average doctor’s income ranges from $239,000 to $258,000. The average salary of full-professors at public institutions is approximately $127,000. Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton recently agreed to a 13-year contract worth up to $325 million.

Professional athletes are grossly overpaid in today’s sporting world. Yes, they put their bodies through hell and back to do what they do, and yes, they sacrifice countless hours with their friends and family to play for their respective teams, but are they really worth every penny?

No, they are not.

Who’s to say that the mental and physical stress that a doctor or teacher faces is worth tens of millions of dollars less than that of professional athletes? These athletes are making significantly more than even the President of the United States.

According to Brian Warner of celebritynetworth.com, Barack Obama’s total income was $481,098 in 2013. Comparing his salary to that of another mega star’s contract, you can see how certain people judge the worth of someone’s profession.

LeBron James recently signed a new, two-year contract in July of 2014 with the Cleveland Cavaliers worth $42.1 million, a contract many considered to be a risk due to the fact that he could have signed a four-year deal worth $94.5 million.

To say that James took a risk in agreeing to make over $20 million for the next few years is absurd. To add insult to injury, LeBron James makes over 41 times what President Obama makes.

The message this sends to the average person is that the “work” LeBron does is 41 times more difficult than the work President Obama does. Apparently playing basketball is more challenging than running an entire country— a ridiculous and insulting comparison. This goes to show just how much we misplace the worth of someone’s actions in today’s society.

Maybe these athletes are paid so insanely much because of their influence on the advertising market in their respective cities. But they also get paid obscene amounts of money for that; star forward from the Oklahoma City Thunder Kevin Durant signed a 10-year contract worth $300 million with the iconic sports brand, Nike.

The rich just keep getting richer, and for who knows what? It is outrageous to think that the amount of cash being raked in by professional athletes is anything other than unjust.

 Ryan McLaughlin Why Pro Athletes Aren’t Paid Too Much

How many times have you heard someone complain about the excessive salaries being paid to professional athletes?

But I am here to say 90% of professional athletes are being paid exactly what they deserve. The professional sports industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry.

Between ticket sales, television and radio deals, advertising, and merchandise sales, professional sports is one of the most profitable businesses in the world.

Pro sports teams, with the exception of the publicly owned Green Bay Packers, are not required to open their books to the public. But if Canadian teams are generating $2.2 billion you can be sure that American pro teams are producing 10-15 times that amount with our larger amount of pro teams, bigger arenas/stadiums, more television time, and larger overall population of sports fans.

The players who help to fill those stadiums, attract fans to their TVs, radios, computers, and sell their jerseys and team apparel deserve their cut of this $25-35 billion dollar pie.

According to USA Today, the median salary of players in the NFL is $677,647 a year.

Now that sounds like a lot of money to most Americans, including myself. But when you look at the context within which the athletes who earn that salary, you will realize that they are paid accordingly.

Athletes put in well over 40 hours a week of practice, study, workouts, and game time. They also put their careers on the line each and every time they go to work.

How many of us can say something like that?

When was the last time you stepped into your office not knowing if you'd be able to physically come back again tomorrow and file another report?

NBA teams have only 14-16 players under contract throughout a given season. These 14-16 are the key COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) that make the NBA money machine tick.

In 2006-2007, the average salary for a player from the Milwaukee Bucks was $2,537,880 dollars. Although the revenue of the Milwaukee Bucks that same season is not publicly available, it is widely believed that most NBA teams bring in between 200 and $300 million annually. I am not arguing that most Americans are underpaid or that an athlete’s job is so much harder than the majority of American's daily grinds. I am simply suggesting that when you breakdown the numbers and look at the bigger picture of just how big of cash cows professional sports have become, it is only fair that the few select athletes who are good enough to make it in those leagues are properly compensated.

 Dan Stein Do Professional Athletes Get Paid Too Much Money? Wouldn't it be great to make nearly $111 million a year simply to play a game? Tiger Woods, along with many other professional athletes, certainly think so. But do these athletes really deserve all that money? In my mind, absolutely not. Professional athletes are making too much money in a society where salaries and wages are traditionally based on the value of one's work. In today's society, one should be paid according to the job’s economic importance and their value to society. Teaching is one of the most economically important occupations because our future economy relies on the education of its youth, yet teachers are paid astronomically less than the average professional athlete is. In fact, each basket Kobe Bryant scores earns him equivalent to the average classroom teacher’s yearly salary. However, some may argue that while teacher’s only provide service to a single classroom, superstar athletes are entertaining fans all around the world, enticing people with a feeling of relaxation and excitement. Obviously, what these individuals must not be aware of is the most important man in our nation, the president, who makes critical decisions that affect the entire world every day, only makes $400,000 a year. While President Obama is hard at work reviving the economy, the unproven rookie in the MLB is earning way over that figure. Furthermore, police officers, firefighters, and doctors save lives while risking their own for a fraction of what sports stars make. People in the military leave their families at home to defend and protect the country knowing they may never return. It's truly a pity that none of these true heroes are given the same recognition by society as athletes such as Brett Favre or Michael Jordan are given. While I do understand that making it into the pros is not an easy thing to do, and that it takes a tremendous number of hours of hard work and dedication every day to earn a job in professional sports, these people do nothing more than entertain the general public. Moreover, in my mind, if these athletes want to continue to be rewarded with the fame and fortune that is unfairly bestowed upon them, they must prove to the world that they are going to be positive role models for future athletes, and those who admire them. These infamous players must grow up, and prove to America that they can be positive role models for kids on and off the field. They may get leeway when it comes to their salaries, but the law should be overpowered by any amount of talent. If Alex Rodriguez earns the same amount of money as it would take to feed the nation's poor for a year, he can’t cheat and take steroids. What kids learn from successful ballplayers like him is that “It’s okay for me to use illegal substances, because in the long run, it will pay off by earning me an enormous contract.” In order for these players to gain respect, they need to have a more significant impact on the community. Finally, what really puzzles me, is how athletes get upset when athletes say that millions of dollars won't be able to support him and his family, and that they need more. What puzzles me even more, is how after holding out for weeks, and sometimes months, the owners give in and pay them what they don't deserve. Think about Jamarcus Russel, the former No. 1 overall pick in the '07 draft. He is on a six-year $68 million contract, with $31 million guaranteed. In simpler terms, that means that despite currently being recognized as one of the biggest busts of all time, and even if he were to get injured tomorrow and never play again, he will still have $31 million in the bank. In any other job, if you don't perform to your expectations, you're fired. There is no guaranteed money.  Mihir Bhagat