Almost every Division I player is on a scholarship. Tuition at the University of Michigan is $13,486--$18,000 a year for undergraduates, depending upon which school the student attends. Room and board, if living on campus, ranges from $16,928 to $27,116, depending upon accommodations. Add in a couple of thousand dollars more for books and study/research materials. The average debt of a graduate is about $26,000, according to the university.
The salaries of football coaches pale by comparison to what professional athletes and megacorporation executives earn. Basketballer Kobe Bryant earned $23 million last year. Of 412 pro basketball players, 340 earned more than $1 million a year. The minimum salary of a major league baseball player is $500,000; the average salary is $3.4 million, more than 15 times the average wages of board-certified family physicians. Zack Grienke, a pitcher, topped the charts with a $24 million salary. In pro football, eight quarterbacks each earned at least $18 million last season, with Aaron Rogers topping the NFL charts with a $22 million salary.
But even the sports stars' salaries don't match those of the Scrooge McDuck CEOs. The average CEO salary is about 380 times that of the average worker's salary, according to data compiled by CNNMoney. This is the greatest wage gap in the world.
At least 80 CEOs each earned at least $20 million in wages and compensation last year, with the CEO of Cheniere Energy earning $141.9 million.
The average salary of a firefighter is about $43,000; for teachers, it's about $45,000; for licensed clinical social workers, it's about $51,000; for registered nurses, it's about $56,000. For physical therapists, it's about $65,000. For child care workers, it's about $18,000, according to payscale.com.
What we pay our workers reflects what we, as a nation,
consider to be our priorities. And our priorities certainly aren't in the
categories of helping or teaching others.
Dr. Brasch is professor emeritus of mass
communications from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. He is a
syndicated columnist and radio commentator, and the author of 20 books. His
current book is Fracking Pennsylvania,
an in-depth look at the effects of high volume horizontal fracturing.]
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