Breaking Down the Numbers: Women's Footballer Salaries Explained

Women football players salaries are rising throughout the world.

The prize money offered to footballers and federations for achievements at continental and international tournaments is also increasing.

Female players are becoming global icons and role models to young girls and adult women.

An increase in televised matches has led to increased crowds, which has led to more sponsorships and more money in women’s football.

Women’s football is on the rise worldwide, but female players don’t earn nearly as much as their male counterparts; however, times are changing.

SportsBoom breaks down some numbers to see what the average female footballers earned in the last few years. 

Average women salaries and examples

According to BBC analysis in 2022, the average FA Women's Super League (WSL) player earned approximately £47,000/per year ($58,000).

To put this into perspective, the average men's footballer earns £3.6 million ($4,5 million) in the Premier League.

These figures were based on published results from seven of the 12 teams in the WSL for the salary bill for players and associated staff, including managers.

There are some high earners in the women's game, but they are few, unlike the men.

Alexia Putellas - who plays for FC Barcelona - is a two-time Ballon d'Or Feminin winner and the highest-paid women's footballer in 2024, earning an annual salary of £556,777 ($695,000).

In 2021, the BBC reported that England Lionesses captain Leah Williamson was on a salary of £200,000 ($254,000) at her club side Arsenal, while Chelsea and Matildas player Sam Kerr earned around £400,000 ($509,000) a year.

Williamson earned half of what Kerr made despite both players being international stars and playing in the WSL.

Kerr has earned many individual and team honours throughout her career, and her 2024 salary is now in the region of £417,000 ($520,675).

Lionesses’ striker Keira Walsh takes the third spot on the list. Walsh joined FC Barcelona from Manchester City in 2022.

She has proven to be an essential player for City and England and earns a salary of £400,000 ($500,000).

While these salaries at the top end of the women's game are high, they are rare and not the norm.

Seven of the highest-paid female football stars earn between £220,000 and £375,000 ($275,000 - $468,200).

10 Highest-Paid Women’s Footballers in 2024

*As of April 2024

Comparing Football Salaries: The Gender Pay Gap

Female salaries are inordinately low compared to the men from top to bottom.

For example, Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne earns a £20m ($25m) salary.

Liverpool and Egypt sensation Mohamed Salah makes £18.2m ($22.7m) a season.

De Bruyne and Salah earn more per week than the best-paid WSL player makes in a year, as do hundreds of other Premier League players.

They make as much money in a week as Putellas makes in a year.

As told before, the women's star players earn far above the average of most WSL players - £47,000 ($58,000) per year.

Other media investigations found that some players earned as little as £20,000 (approximately $25,000) per year in 2021.

The problem is similar in other women's leagues in Europe. Some women in the French side of Lyon earned £420,000 ($534,000).

German national women's team coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg called for a minimum salary in her country's domestic league.

In an interview in 2022, Voss-Tecklenburg said players had to take second jobs to have enough money to live because their salaries were low.

Low-paid women's football is not restricted to Europe. The United States also has issues with the gender pay gap. 

How much do women football players earn in the United States?

The closest comparison to the FA WSL is the American National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

The players agreed to their first-ever collective bargaining agreement in 2021, with a guaranteed minimum salary of $35,000 (£28,000), an increase of 60% on the previous year.

However, reports state the maximum salary is still only $75,000 (£60,000), but the average NWSL salary is $57,000 (£45,600).

Minimum NWSL Salaries

• 2021: $22,000 (£17,600)
• 2022: $35,000 (£28,000)

Maximum NWSL Salaries (Before Allocation Money)

• 2020: $50,000 (£40,000)
• 2022: $75,000 (£60,000)

The maximum salary in the NWSL is below the minimum pay in the men's Major League Soccer (MLS), which also has a much larger salary cap ($4.9 million [£3.9m] compared to the NWSL's $1.1 million [£881,000]).

The MLS's ability for teams to sign 'designated players' outside the salary cap, meaning the best players can earn well over the $612,500 (£491,000) maximum salary.

The NWSL’s maximum salary rule has seen many of the world’s best female players head to Europe to earn more money because there are no salary restrictions. 

How much do female footballers earn by playing for their country?

Recently, there is beginning to be parity in how much federations pay female players to play for their national team, with many countries offering their men's and women's players the same match fees.

England, Australia, Norway, and the USA all have deals that have been praised as a step in the right direction towards equal and fair payment for female footballers.

However, chasms in other areas remain in football's gender pay gaps.

The biggest pay gap is prize money offered to men's teams compared to women's.

Despite being the most successful women's team in the world, the United States Women's National Team (USWNT) earned less in bonuses from their 2019 World Cup victory ($2.5m - £2m) than the men's team would if they won men's World Cup ($9.38m - £7.5m).

The BBC's 2021 report said the Lionesses were only given a bonus of £1.3m ($1.6m) for their Euros win, while the men's side would have received £5m ($6.3m) had they done the same in Euro 2020.

There were further disputes over bonuses before the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Comparing FIFA's prize money for men's World Cup vs. Women's World Cup

The prize money on offer to teams in the men's World Cup compared to the Women's World Cup is stark, with $440m (£549,000) available to teams at the 2022 tournament in Qatar versus $110m (£88.2m) on offer for the teams traveling to Australia and New Zealand in 2023.

The $110m World Cup prize money is a $50m (£40m) increase from the original $60m (£48.1m) on offer.

It has been reported that FIFA hopes to award equal amounts of prize money at the men's and Women's World Cups by 2027.

FIFA included a player bonus structure for the 2023 World Cup. Every player in the 32 World Cup squads received a minimum of $30,000 (£24,000).

Moreover, the amount received by the female players increased with every round their country progressed.

Female players earned $60,000 (£48,000) when their country reached the knockout stages, $195,000 (£156,000) for reaching the final, and $275,000 (£220,400) if they won the competition.