Research Paper Final

Why Are Athletes Earning More Money Than Academicians?

Introduction

Why do professional sportsmen and women earn more than professional academicians? This question seems to disturb many people who belief that athletes are overvalued owing to the fact that they don’t provide essential services as compared to academicians. Reformist campaigns have been staged aimed at advocating for better pay for academicians since they teach nearly all professionals in every field yet end up earning a portion of what others are earning. Academicians are the main drivers of the economy. The paper below analyses the reasons why athletes make more from their services as compared to academicians who do more work than the athletes. Despite the many regulations that have been put in place by Labour authorities and agencies, having same rights when it comes to payment of salaries still seems like an elusive dream for academicians. Highly rated sports personalities often sign multi-million deals with their teams and huge endorsement deals with their sponsors leading to one question; Do people value sports more than they value education?. It's obvious that teachers provide a service that is very essential to human existence and understanding of different issues in different fields. The development of the society depends more on teachers than it does on sports personalities because people can live without games, but education is necessary in developing and changing the world. Most researchers view sports as a luxury that people can live without but see education or academics as being essential to the human existence and development. The high valuation of sports seems to be ridiculous considering that they don't play a big role in people's lives yet education is undervalued yet it plays a big role in the society. This scenario can be explained using the economic theory of demand and supply. When an item is readily and abundantly available to people, it tends to lose its value while if the same item is scarce, its value increases steadily. Since education is provided all over the world, and teachers are everywhere, its value is little while since athletes have a rare talent that is not available to many people, they are valued highly hence paid more. The more readily the supply of an item is, the lower the price of that item will be. The higher the demand, the more people who want the item, the higher the price will be. Academicians seem to be undervalued because its supply is abundant and is available in most places while athletes appear to be paid highly because they poses a talent that is rarely among other people.

For a sixth year running, Forbes magazine has ranked athletes as the highly paid professionals in the world surpassing highly qualified academicians and CEO's of global companies. Some household names in sports such as soccer stars Christiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Lionel Messi show the fabulous life of rich sports personalities. These personalities own personal Jets and Yachts, something that some academicians can never in a thousand years. According to the latest rankings by Forbes (2015), the recent fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao pushed them to the top of the list as the highest paid professionals in the world. Their earnings are estimated to be in the region of $300 million and $160 million respectively for the two boxers. The report also ranks Lewis Hamilton as the highest paid racing star, Phil Mickelson as the highest paid golfer, Rodger Federer as the highest paid tennis player and Christiano Ronaldo as the highest paid soccer player.

The comparison between athletes and academicians seems to fall only on one argument, that academicians should be paid more because they perform more duties than sports personalities. It's true some of the athletes have admitted having limited academic qualifications but some of them such as Frank Lampard, a soccer star, are highly qualified academically. This argument proofs that not all sports professionals lack academic intellectualism. The explanation here is that sports personalities have something that is scarce hence are highly paid for it while academicians have something that is in excess of demand hence undervalued.

Thesis statement

Most experts seem to suggest that sports professionals lack intellectualism as compared to academicians who are said to be highly qualified. This argument is not correct since there are sports professionals who are also highly trained in education but seem to have followed their talents or passion that seemed to yield more money or income.

Literature review

Some experts have been pointing out at the misbehaviors of some sports professionals as the basis of stating that the sports profession lacks intellectualism. These incidences maybe Floyd Mayweather's alleged women bartering and violence or Mario Balotelli's violent conduct in the soccer field. While this argument may appear to be true, it does not speak for the whole field of sports professionalism. This is because some athletes such as soccer stars Frank Lampard are high qualified academically and are also stars in their respective careers.

The latest Forbes magazine report (2015) shows athletes as the highest valued and paid professionals in the world. Every sport from Soccer to baseball and racing seems to be overpaying for the services of their stars. Professional athletes also seems be landing lucrative deals such as product endorsements that increase their salary as well. A good example is soccer star Christiano Ronaldo, who takes home an estimated 779.6 million dollars in salaries and endorsement deals. From the report, it is evident that professional athletes are earning a lot in a society where salaries and remuneration are supposed to be based on a professionals work done. Teaching is a profession that plays a significant role in developing professionals who drive the economy of a country yet they are the worst paid. Experts suggest that professionals should be paid according to their job's economic importance and their value to the society.

In the article "Intellectual athletes: an oxymoron", writer James Dolton (2011) discusses the reason it's impossible to be both an athlete and an intellectual at the same time. Throughout the article, Dolton explains the meaning of an oxymoron and also explains the hatred most people have for athletes just because they are earning more money than them. It does not seem right that professionals whose work is just entertaining a crowd by hitting a ball can make 1000 times more than a brain surgeon who stays awake deep at night saving lives of people or a teacher who teaches for a whole day. Other talented professionals who save lives such as firefighters and doctors are also paid less than professional athletes despite the fact that they offer services that are very crucial to the people. Dolton's argument of not mixing intellectualism and athletes seems to be born from the commonly held myth that sports personalities performed poorly academically hence that's why some of them are involved in controversies. Some of the controversies engulfing the sports industry include Tiger Wood's marital woes that cost him a lot of money and almost run down his career. Floyd Mayweather, a boxer, has also been causing controversy with records of battering women. These cases are very rare in other professionals hence the reason Dolton argues that professional athletes lack intellectualism.

Athletes are valued and paid highly because they possess rare talents that make them the most sought-after professionals as compared to other professionals such as academicians and firefighters or policemen. Walden (2008) explains that in today's economy, it's difficult to determine how different professionals should earn hence they are paid concerning their demand in the job market. Athletes are paid highly because they are not in high supply as compared to academicians and other professionals. This situation can be explained using law of supply and demand which states that when the supply of a product is higher than the demand, prices go down and vice versa. The low salaries of academicians seem to have been contributed by the fact that there are many of them in the job market exceeding demand.

The fact that there is no governing body to regulate salaries in the job market or a mechanism that can used to dictate operations in the job market seems to favour professional athletes. Some professions such as academicians seem to be discriminated against because there are no guidelines that appear to be followed when establishing salaries for different professions. According to Simmons (2007), there appears to be a simulation of a free capitalist economy whereby the issue of regulation of salaries and income is left to be decided by individual employers and job providers. Employers seem to have taken advantage and hence ended up discriminating against some professionals such as academicians since there is no mechanism which can be used to determine which professionals should be paid higher salaries because they do more work. Professionals such as teachers seem to suffer because of this since employers know that many trained teachers are jobless hence pay anyhow. The issue of the gap between salaries of athletes and people in other professions need to be bridged as soon as possible and to achieve this certain things have to be done. Bridging this gap would mean that the discrimination that currently exists in these professions will be solved, a move that will enable all professionals to earn according to the amount of work they perform.

According to Young (2004), the salary gap between athletes and other professionals can be bridged even though the process will take some time. Conducting an unbiased study would be a first step in knowing how each profession should be paid. It's also challenging to know which criteria to be used in grading the different professions in the job market on how they should earn, whether depending on academic qualifications or demand. Young proposes that this study should help employers and job owners to appreciate the hard work of people and pay them according to the hardness of the job requirements. It's sad how the society pays more for the easiest jobs but pays less for the hardest ones. The author also argues that measures should be put in place which will discourage the public from being biased to certain professions and discriminating others. As in the case of athletes, employers do not have a choice when it comes to paying them since it is usually the highest bidder who gets to sign the athlete. The issue of scarcity of the talent of the athlete seems to help in negotiating the salary with the most talented athlete going away with the fattest cheques.

Conclusion

The high value and salaries that athletes seem to be earning is ridiculous judging from the fact that other more crucial professionals are making less than that. The high salaries for professional athletes seem to be explained from an economic point of view, that when the supply of a product surpasses its demand, then the price of the product drops and vice versa. Athletes possess talents that are rare hence making them have a high demand, a fact that enables them to ask for astronomical salaries and contracts. Academicians do not have this luxury since there are many qualified teachers in the job market hence employers pay whatever they like. The only way to harmonize salaries among the different professionals in the job market is by conducting an unbiased study that will determine the criteria to be used in paying for various services regardless of supply or demand. The best criteria to be used seem to be rewarding professionals, according to the importance of their work and how best their work improves the economy directly or indirectly.

References