This page was created by Collin Hardwick.
Data and Findings
Overall PGA vs LPGA Tour Pay Gap
The U.S. Open carries the highest purse for both the PGA ($12 million) and the LPGA ($5 million). However, the LPGA’s premier event, in terms of prize money, would rank 45th on the PGA Tour’s list of all 50 events – embarrassingly close to the bottom of even the PGA’s non-major list.Simply put, the PGA has 46 non-major tour events compared to the LPGA’s 28. And of these events, the PGA’s average non-major purse comes out at $6.4 million – that’s $4.67 million more than LPGA’s humble $1.78 million non- major purse.
Or to think about it in a different way, the winner and runner up of an average PGA event combine to earn more money ($1.84 million) than the entire LPGA field in an average non-major event of their own ($1.73 million).
And lastly, only five out of 50 PGA events have a first-place payout of less than $1 million, while not a single one of the 33 LPGA events pay the champion more than $1 million.
Are women underpaid?
No definitive answer is readily available. At the end of the day, it all comes down to TV broadcasting rights and event sponsors as they are filling the purse. Logically, the more money a respective league can bargain for compensation in return for the TV broadcast and its sponsors, the more money will fall into the purse. And the more viewers each league attracts, the more value a broadcast and sponsors hold for the networks which in turn inflates the price and purse.In 2017, the PGA’s British Open averaged 4.97 million viewers (Most-Watched) while the event on the LPGA Tour hardly averaged over 1 million (NBC Sports). Additionally, 2017’s year as a whole was one of the worst rating for the PGA Tour in nearly a decade (Shackelford).
The PGA’s purse for that event came in at $10.25 million (Porter) while the LPGA’s was a more meager $3.25 million (Wire). However, the LPGA cashed in 32 percent of the pay with only 22 percent of the TV viewership and exposure for sponsors. And with the TV viewership being a driving force toward broadcast contracts negotiations to fuel the purse, the women seem on the winning end of this one.
Bottom line
We are more than a stone’s throw away from parity, but with nearly 20 empty weekends on the LPGA Tour schedule, there is certainly room to grow toward a more equitable outcome on basis of merit.So, are women paid proportionally to men in professional golf? From the guidelines and definitions previously established in conjunction with the data acquired, no. Women are not proportionately compensated in professional golf to that of their male counterparts.
However, the business of professional golf can only negotiate broadcast and sponsorship contracts with the viewership figures reported. From the standpoint of evaluating the logistics of the purse and how it is compromised in conjunction with an adept understanding of business negotiations, women are paid equivalent to their market value as an entity of entertainment on the basis of content consumption – or if anything slightly overpaid considering the juxtaposition of purse money with TV broadcast ratings.
(Top photo by Tannen Maury / Shutterstock)