World Cup prize money disparity is an obstacle to Equal Pay
To the average American, much of the attention surrounding the 2018 FIFA World Cup was focused on its prize pot of $32 million. The World Cup is a global sports spectacle that takes place every four years, and the 2018 tournament has been no exception. For fans, the World Cup is a chance to watch some of the world’s most famous athletes on the world stage, in front of audiences that range from hundreds of thousands to millions of people in a variety of venues. It is in this sense that the 2018 World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world, with one of the most exciting prizes in the world.
Yet, as many Americans have noted, the World Cup is not the only source of pride for the United States. When it comes to the United States’ sporting prowess, winning the World Cup is as good as winning the Super Bowl. More importantly, it is part of the national identity. For some, it is the pinnacle of their American aspirations, for others, it is the ultimate proof that hard work and sacrifice can produce results.
The national pride is not so widely shared, however, as with the issue of wage disparity in the workplace. Recent data from Catalyst, the left-leaning research firm based in Silicon Valley, sheds a light on this issue. Catalyst surveyed the wage gap in the United States in relation to six fields that are important to the national identity of Americans: business, technology, media and communications, health care, manufacturing, and energy.
While the wage gap is much smaller—an average of one percent—for most fields, it is a significant difference. For example, the wage gap for U.S. manufacturing workers is an eye-popping 5.8 percent, nearly twice as high as the average wage. This gap is growing as well. In the 2010s alone, the wage gap grew for manufacturing and many low-wage industries, and now in 2018, it has grown
