Back in July, Americans tuned in — in recordbreaking numbers, no less — to watch the U.S. women’s national soccer team easily rise to victory against Japan in the World Cup. This was the women’s third World Cup win since the team’s creation in 1985.
And Americans stayed tuned in when news rolled out that the women were awarded $2 million for their win. That’s not so bad until you compare it to the $35 million the German men’s team was awarded after their World Cup victory in 2014. And just to drive the point home: the U.S. men’s soccer team was awarded $8 million just for reaching the Round of 16.
The story isn’t new: in the Women’s National Basketball Association, Brittney Griner, who was the top draft pick of 2013, made $49,440 in her rookie season with the Phoenix Mercury, according to Business Insider. Compare that to Anthony Bennett, the men’s NBA top draft pick in 2013, who signed a three-year, $16.6 million contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, according to sportrac.com. That contract works out to a more than $5.5 million salary for Bennett’s rookie year.
The story is the same for many female athletes across the spectrum of sports (and for women in the general workforce — but that’s another story).
Boulder-based professional cyclists Laura Jorgensen and Courteney Lowe are taking a stand against the pay gap in women’s sports as they prepare to ride the USA Pro Challenge as part of the Pepper Palace Pro Cycling team. And this is no trivial undertaking. Considered one of the most important stage races in the nation for cycling, this year marks the first time in its 27-year history that the USA Pro Challenge has offered a women’s route. Even at that, the women launch on Friday, Aug. 21 for a three-day race, while the men ride a full week beginning on Monday, Aug. 17.
Still, Jorgensen says they are grateful for the opportunity.
“Any time you can get women involved in a race like this, it grabs attention,” the Florida native turned Boulder resident says. “We are so grateful to Pro Challenge for adding a three-day women’s paid race so people can see that women actually know how to race a bike. In the past it was more like a consolation event, where men race and women did a circuit at the end. You don’t get to see how much work [women] put into the sport. You see the men do a five-hour road race and women do an hour criterium and it gives the perception that women aren’t able to do those same types of stages.”
Despite the vast difference in the length of days women will have to participate, they are given the opportunity to ride the same technically difficult courses as the men, from the individual time trial in Breckenridge, to the road race in Fort Collins, and a final criterium in Golden to showcase the sprinters.
According to Cycling News, the average salary for a female cyclist is $22,200 — and that’s for top competitors. The average drops to around $13,300 if the top earners are taken out of the equation.
As is the case with soccer and basketball, the comparison between male and female cyclists is shocking: the average salary for a male cyclist is about $295,100, a figure that drops to $139,200 when top earners are factored out.
The Union Cycliste Internationale, the governing body for the cycling world, is trying to address this wage gap, but it’s slow moving.
“It’s a huge gap and I think it’s getting better, but $22,000 is better than it would have been even five years ago,” says Lowe, a New Zealand native who relocated to Boulder just this year to continue her professional cycling career with Pepper Palace Pro Cycling. Lowe has been racing since she was 17. She’s now 22 and in her fifth year of professional cycling.
For Jorgensen, the entry into pro cycling was different. A number of ACL tears forced her to end her collegiate basketball career, and she found that cycling didn’t place the same stress on her knees that running did.
“I was just racing recreationally when I was in Florida,” she says. “I was working a corporate job, behind a desk all day long, trying to fit in the training. And I got to the level where I could race professionally, but there was no money in it. I wasn’t in a position where I have the financial support somewhere else to say, ‘I’ll race my bike and make very little money.’” But last year Jorgensen decided she wanted to race full time, no matter what it took. So she quit her job and went to work with a friend on a business called Runner Box.
Jorgensen and Lowe both work for Runner Box, which Jorgenson describes as a “Birchbox for runners,” where subscribers get a different box every other month, filled with products that “fuel your athletic endeavors.” They also offer boxes for cyclists and triathletes.
While racing and operating a business are both full-time jobs, Jorgensen says it works.
“There are tons of synergies between our racing and our working, because when we go to races, there are all these products, all sorts of expos, so we get to test and train, share with teammates, and then find the best of the best products and ship it out to subscribers,” Jorgensen says. “There’s tons of crossover and that’s why it’s able to work. Particularly when we’re out racing and traveling, we’re doing lots of networking.”
But when they’re home and training for the next race, that’s when Lowe says they “put the nose to the grind stone, get up and get the ride in early, then go to the office.”
“We tend to do the same thing over and over again: Get up really early, go to the gym, go for a ride for anywhere between two and five hours, then come back, have lunch, and spend the rest of the day working at the office at the house,” Lowe says. “Then we go to the gym in the evening again. Go to bed and then repeat the next day.”
And all of this work because neither woman can make a living simply being a pro cyclist.
Jorgensen says it can cost, on average, about $6,000 per participant in a stage race — that includes entry fees, travel (including airfare if need be), housing, food and mechanics. Of the six members of the Pepper Palace team, two live outside of Colorado.
To complicate matters this year, one of Pepper Palace’s sponsors fell through, leaving a $28,000 gap in the team’s season budget. Riders are still collecting salaries, but finding funding for entry fees and travel has been difficult. When these sorts of problems arise, many women are forced to pay out of pocket if they want to compete.
To bridge the gap in their funding, Lowe and Jorgensen created a team specific version of the Runner Box called the Pepper Palace Box, filled with products provided by their team sponsors, that anyone can purchase to help sponsor the team.
It’s been slow-going with the Pepper Palace Boxes, says Lowe, but the team has reached out in any way they can for help. Recently, Taylor Phinney — the 25-year-old who stood at the top step of the podium in Steamboat Springs for the first stage of the men’s Pro Challenge on Monday — supported Pepper Palace by supplying signed cards for each Pepper Palace Box.
“It has been [so difficult] to get sponsorship,” Jorgensen says. “I am coming from a business standpoint, and I understand that sponsors are only going to put their money into something they think they will get a return on. But it’s a catch- 22: if women aren’t even able to be out there showcasing a brand, how do you get the support? So these events are crucial for women’s cycling — The Pro Challenge, the Tour of California doing a women’s race tour. Even if the race is shorter, it’s a step in the right direction and sponsors can see that women can provide an entertainment level the same as men can. It allows sponsors to say, ‘Hey, women are also giving us visibility.’”
Despite her positive attitude, Jorgensen says she’s unsure if the gap between male and female athletes will ever close. Her main goal is to fight for a living wage.
“I don’t have to tell you that $22,000 isn’t enough to live on,” she says. “If we can get women to a viable living, even if it’s not luxury… I don’t think any of us are asking for a million dollar paycheck. I think we all just hope it gets to a place that we can support ourselves in a way that’s even viable.”
To support Pepper Palace Pro Cycling Team in the rest of their season, visit http://shop.therunnerbox.com/pepper-palace
WOMEN´S PRO CHALLENGE: Stage 1: 10:45 a.m. Friday, Aug. 21 Breckenridge Time Trial. Stage 2: 11:35 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 22 Loveland to Fort Collins. Stage 3: 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 23 Golden Circuit
