Equal Pay for Men and Women Cricketers

Why in news?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced to implement a new pay equity policy for its contracted women cricketers, paying men and women cricketers the same match fees.

What is the BCCI announcement about?

• Match fee - Women cricketers will be paid the same match fee as the men - test matches at Rs 15 lakhs, ODI matches at Rs 6 lakhs and T20I at Rs 3 lakhs.
• Retainership payment - In cricket, apart from the match-wise fees, there is a retainership payment system where players are paid annually depending on their grade apart from the match fees.
• Men cricketers, who play a higher number of games, are paid higher than women.
• There will be no change in this as of now.

What will the decision mean for the players?

• Significance - This is a significant move towards bridging the gender pay gap in the profession.
• It could motivate more women to join and view sports.
• Concerns - Only when women players start playing more matches across all formats internationally it will lead to pay parity in the truest sense.

The Committee of Administrators that runs the affairs of the Table Tennis Federation of India said that it would offer equal prize money for men and women in all the national zonal tournaments.

How about the pay parity in sports in other countries?

• New Zealand - New Zealand was the first country to bring pay parity in cricket in July 2022.
• Both international and domestic level-women players will receive the same match fees as men across all formats and competitions.
• There will also be equity on matters such as travel, accommodation, and the wider playing and training environment.
• Australia - It aims to double the number of boys playing the game in the age group of 5-12 years to 2,10,000 and quadruple the number of girls in the same age bracket to 60,000.
• It has also increased women's pay significantly in the last few years.
• USA - The US Soccer Associations for men and women negotiated agreements for equal pay this year.

How about the gender divide in other professions?

• Women's labour force participation rate is considerably lower than that of men.
• There is a gender wage gap across occupations and industries.
• According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report 2022, India ranked 135 out of 146 countries on the gender gap index, with the country faring poorly on economic participation and opportunity.
• There are few firms with a majority female ownership and where women are employed as top managers.
• As per the International Labour Organisation's Global Wage Report 2018-19, India's mean gender pay gap (based on hourly wages) was 34.5%.
• This wage gap was the highest amongst the 73 countries with varying per capita income levels examined in the report.
• Gender parity in academia is also a serious concern, where women comprise only 16.6% of the total number of scientists working in science and technology organisations.

References

1. The Indian Express│ Equal pay for men and women cricketers
2. The Indian Express│ BCCI equity policy