Sports

Martha C. White,Money 20 hours ago

She lost this year’s Grand Slam to Garbine Muguruza, but Serena Williams just beat Maria Sharapova — not on the tennis court, but in the wallet: Forbes magazine said that Williams’ annual earnings of just under $29 million make her the highest-paid female athlete in the world, ending Sharapova’s 11-year run in the top spot on the Forbes list.
Forbes said she earned $28.9 million over the past 12 months, and a total of $77.6 million in prize money over the course of her career. Williams has won 36 major titles, including 21 Grand Slam singles titles, and is considered by many as the greatest female athlete of all time. On top of that, the tennis star is marketing gold; right now, she trails only LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers in consumer perception of current sports stars, Forbes said. Over the years, she has collected sponsorships and endorsements from a diverse array of companies including Nike, Pepsi and JPMorgan Chase, and Forbes put her income from these activities at around $20 million.
Sharapova, who had sponsors pull back after she tested positive for a banned substance, fell into the #2 spot on the Forbes list with annual earnings of $21.9 million. On Wednesday Sharapova was banned from playing professional tennis for 2 years over the doping charges.
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Female athletes in most sports trail their male counterparts when it comes to compensation, but men and women competing in the top professional tournaments are paid the same. The issue of equal pay generated some controversy earlier this year when BNP Paribas Open CEO Raymond Moore accused female players of “rid[ing] on the coat tails of the men,” a remark that drew a swift rebuke from Williams and others in the pro tennis community, and led Moore to step down from his tournament position.

Claire Lampen,Mic Tue, Jun 7 11:22 

It's official: Serena Williams is now the world's highest-paid female athlete, surpassing previous record-holder Maria Sharapova with a total $28.9 million earned last year, Forbes announced Monday.

But despite surpassing the previous record holder, there remains one important caveat: Williams is not the best-paid athlete on Earth. She's not even the best-paid athlete in tennis.

That honor goes to the men.

Roger Federer — one of the men whom Indian Wells tournament CEO Raymond Moore said female tennis players should "go down on [their] knees and thank" because they've "carried this sport" — made $54.3 million over the past year. Rafal Nadal, the other man Moore referenced, made $32.4 million. 

It would seem that even a woman who's been called "the greatest athlete of her time" falls into the gender pay gap. 

Source: Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images

And that's not something Williams is willing to abide, generous salary or no. When Moore made his sexist comments, she blasted him to the media, pointing out the staggering popularity she and her sister share and how many viewers they've brought to the sport. In a recent interview with Glamour, published Tuesday, she took on pay inequality directly, explaining, "Women deserve the same pay. We work just as hard as men do." 

"I've been working, playing tennis, since I was three years old," she said. "And to be paid less just because of my sex — it doesn't seem fair." 

Will I have to explain to my daughter that her brother is gonna make more money doing the exact same job because he's a man? If they both played sports since they were three years old, they both worked just as hard, but because he's a boy, they're gonna give him more money? Like, how am I gonna explain that to her?

Honestly, not a clue. It doesn't make an ounce of sense that even Serena Williams can't pull in what her male peers do. 

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