Wimbledon Still Thinks It's OK to Pay Women Less

Interesting story yesterday on Wimbledon via ESPN:

Wimbledon won't pay equal prize money

WIMBLEDON, England -- Wimbledon insists it's fair to pay the men more than the women. The women call it sex discrimination.

The All England Club said Tuesday the men's champion will receive $1.170 million and the women's winner $1.117 million -- a 4 percent increase for both in British currency. Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament with unequal prizes for the two champions. "This issue is one of a judgment on fairness," All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said. "We believe that what we do at the moment is actually fair to the men as well as to the women."

Equal work, unequal pay. Is this right? I think not.

Or is this really equal work for equal  pay? Thinking about this a bit more, and I admit I'm no tennis guru, but I do know that men play a maximum 5 sets, women play a maximum of 3 sets. If we estimate that each set lasts an average of 40 minutes, then we're looking at a 2 hour match for the women, versus more than a 3 hour match for the men. So for 50% MORE work, there is only diffference is $7,000?

Thinking about it this way, it's the MEN who get the shorter end of the tennis racket, not the women.

What do you think? Is this equal work for unequal pay or is this much ado about nothing?

Make it a great day!
Phil

Phil Gerbyshak
http://makeitgreat.org


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Comments

[Mary Schmidt]

But we play with the same size balls, don't we? ;-) (Or something like that.)

[Chris Bailey]

Nice way to reframe the issue, Phil. I don't really buy much of Tim Phillips' arguments...perhaps the reason why the top women players compete at doubles is precisely because they want to try for that extra money involved...rather than the reverse of his logic.

And while we're at it...I find women's tennis far more exciting than the lackluster version on the men's side. I mean, how many times can you watch Roddick hit aces? Without Federer and his complete game, there's no excitement. Frankly, it's time to bring back the Borg wood rackets.