UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, JAMAICA

CARIBBEAN SCHOOL OFSPORT SCIENCES

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND SPORT
ECONOMICS OF SPORTS
(SPO 4020)

LECTURER: DAVID BARNWELL

NAME: KAWAYNE WILSON
ID#: 1405920
 PK. (2014). Athletes are underpaid: The Economics of Player Salaries.

The article “Athletes are underpaid: The Economics of Player Salaries published in 2020 by PK
seeks to highlight that not all that glitters is gold when it comes on to the salaries of athletes. This
article will be extensively reviewed. The article was chosen because it focuses on issues that the
average sports fan will not be concerned about and it highlights the economic elements affecting
athletes including their salaries. The article focuses on why most athletes never go professional
and the elite versus the average athletes and their salaries.
Purpose of Article
The writer seeks to call attention to the fact that most athletes are underpaid and that the
narrative that athletes are well paid or overpaid is incorrect. The author wrote the article to
implore the readers to not judge athletes salaries based on the ones who gain big contracts or can
be considered to be ‘overpaid’ as they are a few, but to dig further and look for the unseen as it
relates to athletes salaries. The author highlights that athletes are underpaid by analyzing four
main major league sports. The author’s main purpose with this article is to add to the ongoing
open discussion on whether or not athletes are overpaid.
New Ideas/ Information claimed in the article:
The author wrote on different aspects and factors that he believe contribute to his
argument that athletes are underpaid. The factors PK 2014 looks at includes the number of
athletes that plays professional sports, the salary of the average athletes, the length of their
careers, injuries and special talents and forced amateurism.
The author claims that the odds are stacked against being an athlete as a career as there is
no guaranteed payment. He contends that there are cuts at every stage in all the levels of
athletics. He claims that most athletes does not go professional and up to 41 million youth sports
participants compared to around 4,000 professional athletes among the four major sports; that are
football, basketball, baseball and hockey in America. The writer states that all four of the sports
have an average career length below 8 years. Differently from the elite stars, many players get a
very small pay and have a short career (PK, 2014). Therefore, athletes are underpaid, although
some stand-out ‘elites’ are well paid.
`PK 2014, contends that even if athletes are paid a large salary for their first 5 years, their
future payment is not guaranteed and is one of the reasons so many players are broke or are
bankrupt, even some of the players that earned salaries at the top of the players sport rate. The
writer claims that the issues such as injuries prevents many athletes from ever making the money
they can make during their peak performance years.PK 2014, final claim is that some athletes
salaries are high, but rational and aggregate athletes are underpaid.

PK 2014 gave the impression that their research was important to be published because
he or she wanted to clear the misconception that all athletes get good salary and to highlight the
fact that the average athletes are underpaid. The author attempts to examine all factors that
contributes to the low salary of athletes. The writer wanted to highlight all the facts about
athletes’ salaries and allow the reader to draw their own interpretation, regarding whether or not
athletes are indeed underpaid. The author does this by analyzing the four major sports played in
the USA, the number of athletes who ended up going professional and the salaries of athletes. In
essence, the writer needed to put a stop to the misconception that all athletes are paid well.

In compiling the article ‘Athletes are underpaid: The economics of Player Salaries’, the
author gathered information from notable media house CNN, and the major League Baseball,
NFL, hockey, and basketball websites. The piece is a blog article that is very opinionated and did
not use much sources. The author highlighted his points by providing facts, use of examples of
popular athletes, use of emotive language and statistics on players’ salary from various website,
all of which were effective in convincing the reader that athletes are underpaid.
The subject target of this information are sports fans who believe that athletes are
overpaid, journalist and mass- media, economist as well as athletes themselves who do not
realize that they are under-paid. The main finding of this research is that athletes are indeed
underpaid and it is difficult to become a well-paid professional athlete. PK 2014, also postulates
that most athletes are not being paid enough, despite the world-wide view that they are overpaid.
He claims that the reason the public believes that they are over-paid, is because of the few ‘elite’
athletes who are given very large contracts, but the average athlete will never be able to reach an
‘elite’ status.
The opinions of the author for the most part is trustworthy as the secondary sources used
were reliable and credible. The information he presented (statistics on salary etc.) could be found
on major websites. For example. The salary of National Basketball Association players and
minimums salaries could be verified as they were found on the National Basketball Association
websites and corresponds with what was written. The only drawback, is that some of the points
sounded like a persuasive piece. Another factor that is worth mentioning is that the author used
little to no sources and the piece is a blog article, meaning that the information can be
manipulated by almost anyone. The article however, uses relevant facts to support claims made
by the author.
The article can be quite useful as it gives an insight into the economic struggles of
athletes. The article opened my eyes to the fact that not everything that glitters is gold. The
article provides information for anyone who is researching whether or not athletes are underpaid
or overpaid. Even though the article is widely opinionated it had valid points and used relevant
facts to support the author’s claims. One may question the credibility of the article, given that the
author is only listed as PK and no one has the least idea whether it is a well-known sports
journalist, economist or a high school student who is passionate about athletes and the economy
of sports who wrote it. Otherwise, the piece is an interesting read.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the article
The strengths of the article can be questionable and maybe defined by the level of sports
economics education that individuals who is doing the analysis has. None the less, the writer
displayed a number of strengths in the article. The author is very knowledgeable on the issue
spoken about. The article was also a very interesting read. Even though it is very ‘opinionated’,
the author used a range of statistics to support his or her argument as well as the use of examples
to highlight that the average athlete is underpaid. The article was easy to read and the average
person who knows little about sports and economics could easily understand it. The article uses
reliable, credible and valid sources despite the limited sources used. The information presented
from sources were relevant and added to the complete value of the article
The paper is however, not without its faults, as I believe the writer could have included
more authoritative sources and sports economy experts to better cement his claims and make his
arguments much more believable. The author could have also used more sources and broaden the
geographical spectrum and analyze the salaries of athletes from track and field and other sports
as well to make stronger arguments and shed light on the payment of the average athletes in
those sports as well. Another weakness of this article is that it failed to differentiate between the
salaries of males and females. The comparison would have added much more to this discussion
and the reader could understand the extent to which females are underpaid in comparison to
males. While reading the article I kept thinking about how much better it would be if the author
had taken a gender based approach.
In conclusion, I found the article to be a useful and interesting piece that supports the
claim that athletes are underpaid with the premise that many individuals do not make it to
professional sports and therefore does not make it to elite status to be paid well. It is only elite
athletes that are paid well, who according to PK 2014, are indeed very few. The author implores
the readers to not focus on the elite athletes’ salaries to judge all athletes as in aggregate by
taking a closer look most athletes are underpaid. The article has broadened my knowledge
regarding athlete’s salaries and have given me a more comprehensive understanding of why
many athletes are bankrupt and are suffering after having some successful years in sports. Even
with its faults, the article is useful and provided support of the authors claim that athletes are
underpaid.