Should The Wages Of A Pro Athlete Be Regulated?
INTRODUCTION
The news of how much professional athletes are in the news almost on a daily basis. The salaries these professional athletes reach are astronomical and most people are only able to imagine the kind of money these athletes earn in any month. There is much hype around these salaries and as such most people believe that it is wrong that they get paid so much money. However not everyone agrees that professional athletes get paid too much for their sports.
REASONS FOR REGULATING HIGH WAGES OF PRO ATHLETES
Most people believe that professional athletes do not deserve the big salaries that they earn. There is a belief that professional athletes are greedy and spend their money on worthless material goods such as:
- Fast cars
- Designer clothes
- Big houses
In a time of recession and when money is tight for most people, seeing the high salaries of the professional athletes makes people angry that so much money is being spend on worthless things. One argument that raises the question of these high salaries is the salaries of service people such as:
- Police
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Ambulance medics
- Firefighters
All of these jobs come with a high risk but also a much lower salary. The outcry seems to be why people are allowed to earn such high salaries doing a job that is more like a hobby while other people risk their lives on a daily basis for such a low amount of pay.
REASONS FOR NOT REGULATING HIGH WAGES OF PRO ATHLETES
Not everyone agrees that professional athletes are paid too much. There are a few people who believe that their wages are in fact justified. Reasons to justify the high wages for athletes include:
- Risk of injury when playing sports
- Amount of time put into practice
- Private lives become lost
- Play even when hurt
- Family lives come second to the sport
- Behaviour is monitored on and off the pitch/field/court
When a person has no room for privacy and puts their bodies on the line for their job, it becomes a matter of money being the only compensation.
CONCLUSION
If professional athlete’s wages become regulated, there will be few incentives to play for sports. As long as there are fans who are willing to pay to watch their sports stars and buy the merchandise there is a market. However if the money is not high enough, professional athletes would find this to be a worthless kind of job. On the other hand, the wages of service personnel is too low and a balance between the two needs to be found.