Stephanie Stebbing
Professor Kerr
EN 101-5
11/21/10
Professional Athletes are Not Overpaid
Professional athletes such as Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Peyton Manning are some of the top paid athletes in the United States. Tiger Woods, pro golf player, tops the charts at an average salary of $127,902,706. Some people would argue that they are overpaid because of how much money they rake in on the surface; however there are crucial terms and consequences to working in such a high-paying career field. The first point to consider is that their salary is based on supply and demand. They have a high entertainment value in our society, and are simply supplying our demand for entertainment. Not only do they meet our demand for entertainment, they also contribute more funds to our government because they pay higher taxes than the average American white-collar and blue-collar worker. The last, and maybe the most important, point to consider is that their job requires that they continuously risk their health, their lives, and their career every time they compete.
Because society places such a high importance on sports to meet our demand for entertainment, not to mention the star quality that fans give to the players themselves, athlete’s salaries have skyrocketed due to the increasing demand for their field of expertise. Football, basketball, and baseball are three of the most popular sports in America, and most Americans will happily spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year on fan paraphernalia and game tickets for themselves as well as for family and friends.
The average revenue generated per game at the Yankee Stadium on tickets, food, and merchandise is about $75,000. (B. Jennifer) Tickets for the Dallas Cowboys games can average from $90-$340, but the true, life-long fans spend anywhere from $16,000-$150,000 for a “personal seat license,” which guarantees the right to season tickets for 30 years. (Answers.com) The large amounts of money that fans spend on their favorite teams’ game tickets and merchandise is the driving factor in why athletes are so highly paid. Jeremy Johnson, a columnist for Daily Vidette Sports, compared this argument to that of someone who believes Bill Gates is paid too highly but still buys a Microsoft Word Program. “If you do not want an athlete to make so much money, do not go give them money. You cannot buy a Microsoft Word program and then call Bill Gates overpaid,” Johnson commented (Johnson). Some may envy or dislike the fact that pro athletes are paid well above the average persons’ salary, but that complaint is not justifiable when most of these people are part of the society that contributes to the athlete’s wealth.
Professional athletes contribute more funds to government programs such as construction of roads, communities, and schools, as well as school supplies like computers, desks, and books, then the average white-collar, blue-collar workers do. This is because pro athletes are in a much higher tax bracket, which means their tax cut is a higher percentage than average. Taxation of a pro athlete is more complicated than that of most other professions, as it is based on the individual’s income, how many “duty days” they had for the season, and what state the individual completed their duty days. This formula is called the “Uniform Apportionment Formula”. Some states still rely solely on income, but many more states have adopted this formula for taxation of professional athletes. ("Zeisler, Zeisler & Rawson LLP").
California’s state tax is among the highest in rankings. In the year 2000, California and Wisconsin collected between $94 million and $11 million dollars in taxes from non-resident athletes on income they made while playing away games (“Tax Adviser”). 54 percent of the tax the government collects goes towards Mandatory Spending, which covers things like Medicare, social security, Medicaid, income security, and other retirement and disability funding ("Tax Policy Center"). The government also spends tax money on funding the war, repairing roads and bridges, education in schools and colleges, public health and safety, and support for companies and businesses. Most athletes fall within the 35% tax bracket, which is one of the highest brackets. This means that 35% of their salary each year is deducted and spent on all of the previously stated government funding, which is a great deal higher than the average workers such as teachers and medical assistants, whose deductions can fall in the 10-15% tax bracket. Professional athletes perform their job to the best of their ability, and get paid a lot for what they do. In return, they are one of the highest contributions to government funding, which is why it is reasonable that they get paid as much as they do.
In many sports such as football and basketball, there is a very high risk of injury every time the player steps out onto the field or the court. Most football players are often tall, heavy, and strong, and not to mention determined to make a great hit or sack while playing the game. This puts all possible recipients of a hit at high risk for injury, and even death. Of course, it is not the intention of the player to injure another player, but these athletes are being paid for their skills to defend their team, and when it comes to keeping a member of the opposing team away from the ball, they are going to do their job as best as they can, which can sometimes mean running at them at full speed and tackling them as hard as possible. The same goes for basketball players, except the risk of injury is more on the legs and knees, and does not happen quite as often as football injuries do.
When an athlete suffers from an injury, it is often detrimental to their career because it wares the body down, and makes them more vulnerable, resulting in less playing time, and an even higher risk of a second injury while playing. Sometimes if a more serious injury occurs, it can end the player’s career immediately, rather than causing a greater risk of ending it over time. For example, during the Buffalo Bills opening game of the season in 2007, tight end Kevin Everett suffered an injury to the neck and spinal cord which ended his career in the NFL. When asked at a media briefing if he thought Everett might regain full motion and be able to walk, his doctor answered, “By life, I'm an optimist, but as a scientist and a clinician, I have to tell you that statistically the chances of that occurring are very small," (Mihoces). Unlike other professions, professional athletes take the risk of not only being injured, but also losing their career, every time they compete. Once a player has suffered a serious injury, their chances of starting a new career are very slim because the injury can easily leave the player paralyzed or result in the player having to be in a wheelchair for the rest of their life. If athletes were offered a minimum of $7.25 per hour like the minimum wage-workers receive, there would be no NFL or NBA in existence. Anyone who is in a career field that requires you to expect the possibility of getting hurt, dying, or getting hurt so bad that it endangers your career should get paid more than the average American worker.
Some people will argue that athletes are overpaid because all they do is play a sport, and that given the chance, many people would go play for free (Lefebvre). However, most people are not ever given that chance. Professional athletes are where they are in their career because they earned their spot on the team. They have trained since they were young, and were the top players on their teams in high school and college. If it is someone’s life-long dream to play for their favorite team in the NFL and the coach handed them an opportunity to play for the team with no prior work required, of course they would play for free. However, professional football players didn’t just get their career handed to them; they trained hard for many years to earn it.
Another argument the opposing side might make is that professional athletes don’t have to do well on the field in order to make money, because they are paid the same, regardless, while others have to do well to get paid and keep their job ("ExampleEssays.com"). Although it is true that pro athletes have a contract which ensures that they will be paid a certain amount, and that amount does not vary due to their skills or lack thereof, why would any professional athlete not do their best while on the field? The reason these people are on a national sports team is because they have a passion for what they do, and therefore they want to do their best in order to feel good about themselves and the way they played the game. No professional athlete is on the team because they wanted to make a lot of money, or because they are really skilled but don’t care about the game. It is because they have a strong desire to play the game and they have a true dedication to their team.
In addition to that point, professional athletes can lose their career at any given moment during the season because of fatal injuries, which almost always means that they will not be able to find another career, and therefore, they have no income. Other people with jobs such as scientists, assistants, dentists, teachers, etc… can lose their career by failing, but always have the chance to find a new one because their loss is not due to injury, but rather, lack of skill.
Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Peyton Manning are some of the top paid professional athletes in the world. Although being a part of the team is a dream come true for every athlete in the nation, their careers also provide society with entertainment. Many fans spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year on tickets and team paraphernalia because they love their teams. If it wasn’t for society, athletes would not be in such a high demand for entertainment purposes, and in turn may not get paid as much as they do. Athletes pay higher taxes than average workers do because of their higher salaries. Because of their large contribution to government funding, schools are better prepared for educating students, soldiers who fight our wars are better equipped with the tools they need to defeat the enemy, Medicare and Medicaid is more affordable, and roads and highways are able to be repaired for public safety and convenience. Athletes risk their lives and their careers every day to do what they love to do, which is not required of most Americans in order to maintain their career. Although athletes are paid large sums of money each year, they contribute a lot to our society in various ways. They are highly skilled in their profession and have worked and trained since they were young, and even continue training during the offseason, so their work never ends. They risk their health, their lives, and their entire career every time they play a game. Athletes have a larger salary than the average American worker, but it is justified for all of these reasons.
Works Cited:
B., Jennifer. "ChaCha!." chacha.com. N.p., 19/09/2010. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://www.chacha.com/question/how-much-money-is-spent-on-tickets,-food,-and-merchandise-at-yankee-stadium-every-game>.
"WiKi Answers." Answers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_revenue_does_a_NFL_stadium_make_each_game
Johnson, Jeremy. "Professional Athletes are Not Overpaid." Vidette Online (2009): n. pag. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26489:professional-athletes-are-not-overpaid&catid=68:sportsarchive&Itemid=55>.
"Taxation of Professional Athletes." Zeisler, Zeisler & Rawson LLP n. pag. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://zzrllp.com/28.htm>.
"State Taxation of Professional Athletes and Entertainers." Tax Adviser (2004): n. pag. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-688528/State-taxation-of-professional-athletes.html>.
Mihoces, Gary. "Paralysis Likely for Bills' Everett after Unfortunate Injury." USA Today 11 September 2007: n. pag. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/bills/2007-09-10-everett-injury_N.htm>.
"The Tax Policy Briefing Book." Tax Policy Center. N.p., 2008. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/expenses.cfm>.
Lefebvre, Matt. "Professional Athletes are Overpaid and Selfish." The Quinnipiac Chronicle. Worldpress and CoPress Managed Hosting, 1 April 2004. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://www.quchronicle.com/2004/04/professional-athletes-are-overpaid-and-selfish/>.
"Pro Athletes are Overpaid." ExampleEssays.com. ExampleEssays, n.d. Web. 5 Dec 2010. <http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/36484.html>.
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