Since the beginning of time as we know it, most women in the global work force have been paid less than men, despite the equivalency of job descriptions.

Staggering statistics show that globally, women suffer from poverty more than men do, comprising 70 per cent of the world’s poorest, and own only one per cent of land titles.

Furthermore, the majority of women around the world earn just three-fourths of the pay men receive for doing the exact same work.

Although far better than other countries, Australia is still not exempt from these oppressing conditions, with the gender salary gap standing at 17.1% in November, 2013.

According to the ABS, it has only been since the late 1900s and early 2000s that women have begun to receive the same pay as men in Australia’s work force, and despite this, many women still suffer humiliation and inequality in their professional work spaces, despite equal qualifications.

When it comes to professional soccer in Australia, most refer to the A-League and our country’s renowned Australian Socceroos.

And who can blame them?

Australian men’s soccer has a lot to be proud of; particularly its tremendous achievements over recent years, with consecutive world cup qualifications and a huge rise in A-League and Youth-League popularity.

So, what about our professional female soccer athletes?

Australia’s Women’s League lacks promotion, popularity, and most importantly, equal salary rights when compared to men’s soccer in Australia.

Over recent years, this issue of salary differences in Australian soccer has gradually surfaced, with more people asking the big questions: Why are female W-League players paid a substantial amount less than their male counterparts in the A-League? What can be done to lessen the salary gap between these two professional groups?

It’s time to shed some well-overdue light on this controversial and some-what silent topic in 21st century Australian sport.

Firstly, let’s look at the facts. The A-League was founded in 2003, and had its first official match on August 6, 2005.

Contrastingly, the W-League was initiated in 2008, therefore putting the men’s game substantially ahead of the women’s.

According to Adelaide United media assistant, Will Cutts, Adelaide United player’s train approximately three to four times a week (in addition to individual cardio), and are on-call almost every day.

Racheal Quigley, who has been with the W-League since its first game and currently plays for Melbourne Victory, says her training schedules change weekly.

“It’s usually five days plus game day and occasionally we train twice a day.”

Despite these very similar training routines, Women’s-League participation is still considered a part-time job in Australia, with the A-League considered full-time work.

These ‘part-time’ and ‘full-time’ labels no doubt influence the situation that exists today; where our W-League is paid an appalling amount less than our A-League.

But, there is hope.

According to Adelaide United’s youngest player, Nathan Konstandopoulos, it’s about time Australia did something to increase salaries in Women’s soccer.

“I know salary differences are pretty big and some of them are not getting paid at all.

“With the advertising side, you don’t even know they’re playing sometimes…we (Adelaide United men) don’t know what’s happening with the W-League, we’re not associated with it at all, which is wrong.

“I only know the coach (of Adelaide United Women), and I could only name maybe one player.

“It’s poorly operated,” says Mr Konstandopoulos.

In November last year, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that former Matilda’s captain and W-League star, Melissa Barbieri, was selling a majority of her possessions in order to support herself financially in the up-coming W-League season.

In response to this, Mr Konstandopoulos said no player should ever have to go to such extremes, or be under that much pressure, just to compete in the game they love.

“They’re playing as professionals in their sport; they shouldn’t have to do that.

“If I set on the bench for a game I get five hundred dollars…and on top of my Youth League payment I get seven hundred, so it’s good money for me to live off.”

Melbourne Victory’s Racheal Quigley says her pay does not even come close to covering her living expenses.

“When I played for Adelaide United from season one to season six, I was not paid a cent. Melbourne Victory pay by the game, which is weekly, so $150 if I start in a match, $75 if I am a substitute on the bench, $45 for being on the roster.

“I need another job otherwise I would not survive, so I work at Sportsmart…whenever I am not training.

Nathan Konstandopoulos, an 18-year-old A-League player, is earning approximately five times more in one game than the average W-League player earns in a week. And this is only the beginning of the issue.

“One hundred dollars is literally a local league team for men’s soccer,” says Mr Konstandopoulos.

“A 14-year-old friend of mine is getting $120 a game in his local league. It’s not really fair.”

Although it is near impossible to find exact payment figures for players, according to the A-League CBA 2010/2011 Review, male players under 21 have a minimum wage of approximately $38,000.

The same A-League CBA Review also outlines the average minimum player wage for the 2012/2013 season as $100,324, and the maximum player wage for this season to be $118,029, as implemented by FFA.

According to Mr Konstandopoulos, Marcelo Carrusca, one of United’s Marquee players, is getting well over $200,000 a season.

“Obviously that’s a lot more than what the W-League players are getting. A-League players can live off that. W-League players can’t.”

In comparison with the average W-League salary, the difference here is formidable, and moreover, unacceptable.

“Their salary reflects them not being respected in their club and sport,” says Mr Konstandopoulos.

According to Quigley, there is no minimum or maximum player wage in the W-League.

“I assume nothing. It comes down to what each club offers.”

There is no doubt serious inequality among League salaries, and according to Mr Konstandopoulos, this comes from the way the W-League is treated and recognised in society.

“Women’s League is treated less than the Youth League men’s. It’s sexist and it’s really bad, but that’s just how everyone sees it.

“It should be recognised a whole lot higher than it is. They are professionals too.

“I’ve got to give credit to them because if I was in that position where I wasn’t getting anything from it and I had to feed my family, I would not be as willing to push through.”

In order to change this public attitude that exists, Mr Konstandopoulos says more needs to be done to promote the Women’s game and increase salaries, which in turn will completely change the face of Women’s soccer in Australia.

“The way they broadcast their game…I can see why nobody watches it.

“They need to start from grassroots, from a younger level, like A-League has done, (and then) broadcast it more and put it in people’s faces.

“I think getting more people on board…like get Ross out there, get them all involved and try and promote it as much as they can, because it’s the only way they’ll get more people to watch,” says Mr Konstandopoulos.

Will Cutts, who has assisted Adelaide United’s media team for the past two seasons, agrees with Mr Konstandopoulos’ opinion about pushing the promotions side of the W-League to increase salaries.

“People don’t know it’s going on; that’s probably the main reason they don’t get paid as much,” says Mr Cutts.

“The problem is that a lot of the money and exposure comes through

the T.V deals, and there is a big push for more television broadcasting.

“The T.V deals are now so big because people prefer to stay at home

and watch soccer in the comfort of their homes, instead of paying for a $30 ticket, on top of food, parking and petrol.

“The A-League have a new T.V deal coming in 2016 which will

increase their popularity ten-fold, and it means they can pay the players more.

“Until they (the W-League) get a bigger T.V deal, they won’t be paid.”

Currently, live W-League matches are broadcast on ABC once a week, occurring on a Sunday afternoon, in addition to two matches per season being broadcast on Foxtel.

Racheal Quigley agrees that TV broadcasting is the way to go for Women’s League soccer.

“The ABC coverage of games has been great,” says Ms Quigley.

Yet, despite obvious efforts in creating T.V deals, there are still small viewer numbers, which leaves little demand for broadcasting.

According to Mr Cutts, there is a lot of pressure on the general public, and it’s all about changing the perception of the game amongst local Australians.

“Foxtel is probably the best thing for soccer in Australia, because without them, the game would be nothing.

“But until people know about it and want to watch it, Foxtel are not going to pay that amount to get it done.

“Through TV deals, Football Federation Australia (FFA) are able to deal out more money as well.

“FFA needs to do more to get the girls on T.V. It’s really up to them,” says Mr Cutts.

It is clear that through television broadcasting, the W-League can create a bigger name for itself in Australia, which in turn, will create bigger salaries for the hard working professionals involved.

According to Mr Cutts, it doesn’t help that A-League teams are also struggling to make money.

“It’s probably better that Adelaide United (mens) reach a better financial situation, like other clubs, and then support the Lady Reds, but until they can support themselves on their own this can’t happen.”

With both the A-League teams and the W-League teams struggling financially in some manner, although on fairly different extremes, a sensible idea would be if both Leagues campaigned together.

One option is more ‘curtain raises’ – an effective way of promoting any game.

“Then if people rock up early to A-League games, if there’s a game already happening there, they’re obviously going to watch it,” says Mr Konstandopoulos.

“If we get A-League and W-League players playing together more often, at the same time, on the same pitch, it would benefit both Leagues hugely.”

Mr Cutt’s agrees that Women’s games should be played before A-League matches.

“You buy a ticket for the men’s game, maybe $5 more, but go see the Women’s game, go see the Youth League game, and it’s a day out.

“Then the whole club could be together…it’s probably the smartest way to do it,” says Mr Cutts.

Another significant factor is media. According to Mr Cutts, more could be done in the media sector for W-League soccer, therefore increasing salaries.

“For example, get journalism students or media students helping out,” says Mr Cutts.

“They need to increase it more on Facebook and YouTube, but that probably comes down to people volunteering.”

The W-League does in fact have a well-equipped and current Facebook page, with a number of professional photos from their Instagram account, which is updated regularly.

Quigley noted that the social media side of things is going well.

“Things such as ‘thewomensgame’ has made great steps in promoting our game.

“We are going in the right directions; we just need people to thrive on Women’s football being acknowledged as professional as the men’s.”

Coinciding with this comment, something that sticks out like a sore thumb is the amount of ‘likes’ the Women’s League Facebook page has in comparison with the men’s.

The current number sits at only 7,051, whereas the A-League Facebook page has 172,087 ‘likes’.

Without a doubt, there is a considerable difference in popularity on social media between the leagues, which is something that certainly in-part accounts for the low wages received by W-League players.

Despite these pessimistic facts, the future for Women’s soccer in Australia is looking green and gold.

“The amount of young talent coming through and the talent at W-League, including the attraction to overseas players, is amazing,” says Ms Quigley.

“I just wish there was more equality in the sport…it’s a beautiful game and we put absolutely everything into it, just like the men.

“Yet we also need to find full-time jobs to survive, which then leads to

us being exhausted and not reaching the 100% potential that the women’s game can be!

“I would suggest getting the players involved more in the promotional side of things, as a spectator is more likely to come view a game if they have personally met someone that is playing.”

The word on everyone’s lips seems to be promotion. Now, more than ever, we need to get the word out there that women’s soccer is worth watching, and worth paying for.

“The average attendance in the A-League since the first season to now has doubled, and that’s just through marketing and promotion,” says

Mr Cutts.

“W-League is trying though.

“Promote the game, get the public on side, get the media on side, and

the salaries will increase.

“It’s all about ‘razzle-dazzle.”

According to FFA, their long-term vision is to see Australia establish itself as a world-class football nation.

If this is to happen effectively, then it is about time our athletes, male and female, are treated equally in their field of profession.

Whether it be through promotion, T.V deals, joint campaigns, or media input, to establish a professional and competitive football nation, it is only fair that women and men are treated the same, especially when it comes to salary pay-outs.

“So many more things could be worked on to improve our game,” says Ms Quigley.

“But to do this we need the stability to be able to train and play full-time, and be paid fairly for these efforts.”

In the end, that’s really what it comes down to – fairness.

It’s about time we gave our professional W-League players the respect and fairness they deserve.