Despite the strike that has kept the first two days of the F League in suspense, the wage gap between women’s and men’s football remains 50 times greater than the average, after the signing of the new agreement. A schism that contrasts with the recent success of the Women’s Soccer Team, which less than a month ago won the first Soccer World Cup for our country and the RFEF, increasing the economic attractiveness of the women’s league and placing us as a global power. .
It is especially shocking because, according to the latest CCOO report, the salary difference between men and women in any sector of our country stands at 20.9%. (27,322 euros gross per year compared to 22,601). However, in LaLiga EA Sports (men’s First Division) they earn an average of 5.1 million euros gross per year, while the players in League F only earn 40,000 euros. A difference of more than 1,000% between both sexes.
What is the salary of a soccer player?
The average salary of a LaLiga EA Sports football player (Spanish First Division) in the 2023/24 season can be deduced taking into account the total salary mass data updated by the employers in September (2,554 million euros) for the 500 chips available for Spanish clubs. A figure that could be even greater, if we take into account that several players from various teams have not been able to be registered in the competition due to Javier Tebas’ ‘Financial Fair Play’ rules.
Therefore, when the new world champions talk about “structural changes” within women’s football, the main focus seems to be the open fight with the RFEF to change a federative organization chart that they consider outdated. However, at the same time it is a denunciation of the invisibility of women’s football itself. Hence, the strike by League F players to improve their salary conditions has coincided in time with the order to the federation. It is worth remembering that the World Cup winners received a bonus that is just over half that of the La Roja men.
Female players have a minimum salary 10 times less than that of men
Be that as it may, the truth is that the World Cup feat represents an unprecedented boost for the professionalization of women’s football in Spain. It is true that for a couple of years the F League has had a professional structure similar to that of the EA Sports League. But the fact that players no longer have to be forced to combine football with another profession does not mean that working conditions are ideal.
Starting on a strictly economic level: the agreement that has just been signed sets a minimum salary of 21,000 euros gross for this year, while that of men has just risen to 182,000 euros. Until last week, the players in the highest division of soccer in our country earned a minimum of 16,000 euros gross annually. And many clubs (especially the less powerful ones) made use of this downward limit, since income from sponsorships did not allow them to come even remotely close to men’s salaries.
It seems that, after the new agreement and winning a World Cup, neither.
