Caitlin Clark's Salary Is Lower Than Some NBA Mascots

Women's college basketball superstar Caitlin Clark will be paid less than many of her male counterparts' team mascots after joining the WNBA.

Professional basketball has been marked by the gender pay gap for male and female players. The NBA pays an average annual salary of over $10 million, while players in the WNBA receive just $116,000 on average, according to recent Statista data.

Even so, Clark, who was drafted into the WNBA as the first overall pick by the Indiana Fever on Monday night, will earn less than the mascots of men's basketball's most popular teams, according to a Sports Business Journal report.

While the Denver Nuggets pay their mountain lion mascot Rocky $625,000 yearly, Clark's reported salary for the Fever will be $338,056 for four full years.

Specifically, Clark will see this income breakdown per year:

• 2024: $76,535
• 2025: $78,066
• 2026: $85,873
• 2027 (optional): $97,582

Compare this to the Atlanta Hawks' mascot, Harry the Hawk, who brings in $600,000 yearly, or the Chicago Bulls Benny the Bull, whose annual salary is $400,000.

Clark, 22, has scored 3,951 points during her college play for the Iowa Hawkeyes, which means she is historically the highest NCAA Division I scorer for both the men's and women's teams.

On Monday, NBA Central released Clark's contract on X (formerly Twitter), which brought a wave of criticism about how little she is making relative to her male NBA equivalents.

"Teacher salary for a superstar is wild. The WNBA has to do better. This is unacceptable," one user wrote on X.

Another said: "Biggest woman's hooper in the world is getting paid an entry level consultant salary."

Others were quick to point out that Clark is still going to make a significant income because of sponsorships and endorsements.

"She making millions through endorsements it don't matter," one wrote.

Clark has been lauded for increasing NCAA viewership during her time as a college hoop star. In the past, defenders of female players' low salaries said the profits their games bring in did not warrant the higher salaries of their male peers.

However, the Iowa championship game against the South Carolina Gamecocks had an average of 18.7 million viewers. That was more than any other basketball game since 2019.

"The gender pay gap is particularly acute in this example and is disheartening to see given the record number of viewers who tuned in to the women's NCAA tournament," Alison Stevens, senior director of HR Services at Paychex, told Newsweek.

Still, many considerations determine the available money allocated to the WNBA, like television rights, she said.

"Players like Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso, Cameron Brink and Angel Reese may be the tip of the spear to drive more dollars to the WNBA, as they have all inspired young girls across the country and will certainly draw crowds to the WNBA," Stevens said.

Prices for tickets have skyrocketed too: The average ticket price for the NCAA women's Final Four was $726 this month. Fans are also racing to buy Indiana Fever jerseys with Clark's name, with the item selling out in only an hour.

Clark has made a significant name for herself as an athlete, breaking the record for highest point scorer and getting named the AP All-American four times and Associated Press Player of the Year two times. She has also won the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Award several times.

Brands are eager to get behind Clark's plays as well, with everyone from Nike, Gatorade, State Farm and Buick offering the young basketball star partnerships that helped bring her net worth to around $3 million.

Nationwide, men and women still show stark differences when it comes to being paid, both on average and for the same jobs. Women earn 16 percent less than men on average across the country, according to a Forbes report.

Taking into account specific job characteristics, women at the executive level still saw 95 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

Because of this, Mae Mendoza, a senior manager and head of Robert Walters' Austin, Texas, operations, told Newsweek she was unsurprised by Clark's substantially lower salary when compared to mascots for the men's teams.

A recent report from Robert Walters, a recruiting company, said men continue to earn higher wages and feel more satisfied than women with their salaries. They were also more likely to receive a pay raise when they request it, while 40 percent of women feel underpaid for what they do. That compares with just 24 percent of men.

"Whilst the need for higher salaries and monetary benefits is evident from women, it seems that many are facing barriers which prevent them from negotiating," Mendoza said.

In the Robert Walters report, nearly a fifth of women admitted to being hesitant about negotiating over salary because they didn't believe the employer would give them a raise.

"Whilst organizations work to bridge the gap, employers need to be more prepared to address issues and make changes, particularly when it comes to appraisals and benchmarking salaries more fairly, without waiting for employees to seek fair pay themselves," Mendoza said.

"Employers are then becoming increasingly at risk of losing out on talent as employees look elsewhere," she said.