In America, the average NBA (National Basketball Association) player makes over $10 million a year, according to Statista. The website Indeed says the average Active Duty U.S. Army Soldier makes around $41.6k a year. 

Now, let’s take a moment to compare and contrast these two jobs. 

An NBA player competes in professional basketball games for over half the year; the other half is spent conditioning and preparing for the next season. Sometimes, athletes get hurt during the games and can’t play for a while or get hurt bad enough and have to retire at age 35. 

Active Duty U.S. Army Soldiers usually spend their day doing mandatory physical training, their job (paperwork, etc.), artillery work, training, and then home, according to GoArmy. Throughout the year, soldiers also have to attend drills – some are only through the weekend while others can be a month-long – some have to attend class away from home, and an active duty soldier always has the risk of being deployed. 

The difference between the salaries of these jobs is very significant, a $9,958,400 difference. This example isn’t the only one that is morally wrong. 

When comparing and contrasting any sport and a life-risking/life-saving career salary, the sports career always wins in the long run. 

To give an example of another notable difference, the average NFL player makes around $2.8 million a year. The highest-paid NFL player is Joe Burrow, who makes a whopping $55 MILLION in one year (Diario AS).

The highest-paid position for a doctor is a neurosurgeon, who makes about $788k a year (Becker’s ASC). 

Granted, $788k a year is considerably more than most Americans make. However, Americans who play sports for a living should not be making more than the people who save our lives or risk their OWN lives for us. 

It is ridiculous that in America, we pick to idolize regular people for entertainment rather than showing our respect and thanks to the people who actually deserve it. 

While some athletes, such as NFL, MLB, NHL players, etc., are rolling in money, there are many soldiers, firefighters, nurses, and many more in the U.S. who are surviving paycheck to paycheck. 

It’s not ethical for us, as individuals, to not do anything about the overwhelming amount of money that athletes are getting paid. 

A solution that would benefit many people would be taking a percentage out of professional athletes’ pay to donate to local hospitals, Armories, charities, etc. Then use another percentage to help raise awareness and help homeless people and rehabilitation centers. Or we could simply raise the pay of these serviceable careers and lower those who play sports. 

There needs to be a change made about the pay in America, and it needs to be soon.