In 2019, the top AFL Women’s players earned $24,600. In contrast, the average men’s salary is $371, 000. Most AFLW players will be paid between $13,400 and $19,00 per year. $13,400 is what the average Australian earns in eight weeks.
So, why are women’s players paid so much less than men?
It all has to do with the third economic question – How to distribute income?
In the men’s game, the all- time attendance record for the Premiership Season was broken for the third consecutive year with 6.951 million people attending the 198 AFL matches. In contrast, while the AFLW grand final last year had 53, 054 people attend, this was well up on the usual attendance, which is usually around 6,500 per match (for that season). In total, the 2019 AFLW season saw a total of 251,792 people attend. A similar difference can be seen in the viewing figures on television.
With more people attending and viewing games, TV studios will be willing to pay more to televise the games, since there is a greater audience, and advertisers will pay more to advertise their product to more people.
What this means is that, from a purely financial point at least, the men’s AFL players are worth more to the AFL, since they bring in a much greater revenue to the AFL.
In a market capitalist system such as Australia’s, individuals receive income for selling their resources to businesses (in this case, the AFL). People with the most valuable resources receive the highest income.
To the AFL, the men have more valuable resources, as they generate more money to the AFL. This means, under our market capitalist system, they receive more money for their work.
The stakeholders of the AFL would like to see their money going to where is it likely to generate the most revenue. This would be the men, however with the men’s game already well- established in Australia, it is likely it will continue to generate massive profits, as it last year, which generated a massive $793.9 million, up by $778.6 million from the year before. Therefore, they might want their money to go to funding and developing the less- developed women’s league.
The women’s game is growing, which has meant the income they receive has been increasing at the same rate. However, some suggest that even though they don’t bring nearly as much money as AFL players, the AFLW players should still be paid more for their work being professional (or at least semi- professional) athletes. Some have suggested that if the broadcast right’s deal isn’t large enough, the men should receive less money to subsidise and increase the women’s pay.
One thing is for certain, however. As AFLW gets better, and more people watch it, AFLW players’ wages will continue to increase as they become more valuable to the AFL and receive a larger ‘piece of the pie’.
Sources:
https://thewomensgame.com/news/how-much-do-aflw-players-get-paid-533116
https://www.afl.com.au/news/374342/statement-afl-release-of-2019-financial-figures
Year 11 MHS Economics 2020 
But it’s more than luck and hard-work! He does the stuff no one thinks to do, or thinks they can do. When every other kid from Long Island was going to sleep-away camp, [RAHUL] went to skateboard camp. He, like Yoshimi, holds a black belt in karate — and for good measure, also learned the Afro-brazillian art of capoeira. In between his career in PR and his career in filmmaking, he ran a FOOTY CARDS company (at 16!).. [RAHUL] didn’t just get engaged on Back to the Future day…he did so in the DeLorean from the film, at the exact time Marty arrived in 2015, with a chorus of A Capella Marty McFlies in orange vests singing an original arrangement of Huey Lewis & the News’ ‘The Power of L’ove
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Although AFLW players dont rake in as much money in comparison to male players, they still dserve to be able to live off their earnings – an average of under $20,000 is not money to live off! So because they have to get part time jobs, they cannot spend as much time getting better at footy. If they did have the time, perhaps they could get better and perhaps more people would watch!
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Good blog mate, how much do sponsorships take up the wages?
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sponsorships aren’t part of the wages provided by the AFL; they are earned separately from the AFL. But you can probably expect that the men’s sponsorships are much more than AFLW players for the same reason they are paid more – their ‘brand’ is more valuable.
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