• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Athelets vs Ordinary people taking less Money

R

Retro Rob

Diamond Member
Guys,

A lot has been made recently about Kobe not taking less money to lure other stars to play with him, and eating up a chunck of the Lakers' cap for the next 2 years to the tune of close to 50 Million while allegedly looking greedy, yet, players who decided to take less and are winning or have won as a result (Tom Brady and Tim Duncan comes to mind immediately) are prasied by ordinary folk.

Then, there's the accusation that regular, everyday working-class folks wouldn't take less money yet they hypocritically ask athletes to.

Is that true?

I don't think so. While I haven't left a job to take a lesser paying job in my career, I've passed up on more lucrative offers (taking less money probably more indirectly), but then I know people who HAVE quit jobs that pay an good amount of money to take lesser paying jobs in order to deal with less stress and a more flexible work schedule, etc.

My question is: can we unhypocrtically ask our coveted athletes to take less pay, and is the crticism fair that we don't do it ourselves?

Why isn't more made of people who take less, or pass up on higher pay?
 
It's not comparable to "average Joes" at all. He is on a team with the supposed goal of winning. If his play isn't allowing the team to win he should be willing to adjust his pay to make more room under the salary cap.
 
My wife left $20,000 on the table to take a job with less weekends and no 2nd shifts. So yes it does happen.

That being said, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone making $30,000,000 a year + whatever in endorsements when they are asked to take a pay cut. If you lose $10,000,000 you *still* have $20,000,000 a year which is more than my household income will provide in 100 years.
 
A little google search would reveal news stories where employees of companies have all taken a pay cut in order to not have layoffs.

And comparing major leagues sports where they're making millions even with taking a pay cut is a poor comparison.
 
Oh and another thing...NBA stars get to write their contracts in for guaranteed raises. 10 million one year, 12 the next, 14 the year after that.

The last couple years most "normal joes" are lucky to even get a paltry 2% "standard of living" adjustment. There were two years in a row where didn't get any raise due to the economy. 2% on a 50,000 salary is $1,000 gross. About $600 net. Or a whopping $23 a paycheck.
 
vi edit said:
My wife left $20,000 on the table to take a job with less weekends and no 2nd shifts. So yes it does happen.

That being said, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone making $30,000,000 a year + whatever in endorsements when they are asked to take a pay cut. If you lose $10,000,000 you *still* have $20,000,000 a year which is more than my household income will provide in 100 years.
Click to expand...

pretty much this


wife and I left NYC and big careers to raise a family in peace and quiet making less than half what we used to make. While I miss being an opera singer I am much happier being an involved dad vs seeing the wife and kids one weekend every two months. Real people make real sacrifies.


Someone making 40 million being asked to only make 20 doesnt make me feel bad for them at all.


Oh gee no Agera R for you this year. Just get a Bentley
 
Slightly different situations. Actually, they're vastly different situations.

How much money has Kobe made in his career? How many 36 year old working stiffs do you think could never work another day in their lives and retire with tens or hundreds of millions in the bank? Not many.

I have seen union members take an across the board pay cut to keep their jobs. That's similar. They're individually all taking it on the chin to ensure that everyone keeps their job. And in smaller, struggling companies I've seen everyone from the president to the custodian take pay cuts to keep the company afloat.
 
Not quite apples to apples. There's no salary cap in average joe's world. But I'm sure it's been done at some level. A union giving something up for a promise of no layoffs, something like that.
 
surfsatwerk said:
It's not comparable to "average Joes" at all. He is on a team with the supposed goal of winning. If his play isn't allowing the team to win he should be willing to adjust his pay to make more room under the salary cap.
Click to expand...

That's not his problem, it's management's problem for signing him to a contract without performance incentives and reducing the guaranteed money. They should only guarantee 10mil and then make the next 20 incentive based. A contract is an agreement beforehand to x services, and a good contract should already deal with poor performance in a clause. It's not Kobe's fault he got a sweet deal with a contract that doesn't penalize him for not performing. Football has it right, they can get out of most contracts if the player isn't living up to expectations and give only a certain percentage of the contract as guaranteed money. The NBA and MLB badly need hard salary caps and this won't happen as much.
 
Last edited:
vi edit said:
My wife left $20,000 on the table to take a job with less weekends and no 2nd shifts. So yes it does happen.
Click to expand...

Indeed, but when these stories normally come up, we get accused of not taking less.

But then, if I'm making 35k with two kids, I am not in a postion to take less money than say a Lebron James for instance, who cashed in about 70 Million last year, and still wants more.
 
Athletes are treated as commodities that are tossed to the side when they are no longer useful. If i were an athlete I would be playing the same game and squeezing out every last dollar that I can.
 
Last edited:
Capt Caveman said:
Then one can request for a promotion and/or increased bonus. Or switch to another company. Apples vs Oranges
Click to expand...

Of course. But every company still has a cap for job roles. A bonus is extra, and has nothing to do with a cap. That's like saying your cap is your gross pay, instead of your net pay.
 
brainhulk said:
Athletes are treated as commodities that are tossed to the side when they are no longer useful. If i were an athlete I would be playing the same game and squeezing out every last dollar that I can.
Click to expand...

I somewhat agree with that IF the star athlete was only in the game for a few years. Longevity in some sports is difficult to achieve. The other tough thing to realize is that many players go into the league at an immature age and don't know the value of money. They come from lower and middle class households. Their agents skim their salaries and they typically bleed money for the first few years until they figure out they can't play forever.

It's worse in the NFL though because virtually any single play can end a career in the action positions. I'd like to be a 3rd string QB for a few years. 😀
 
I was at a failing company that mandated salary cuts across the board, with the distribution up to each director. My department (IT) was only three other people. I chose to eat the entire cut for the lowest paid guy, and half the cut for the other two guys. All in all I took almost a 20% cut in pay to keep my people happy.
 
BoberFett said:
I was at a failing company that mandated salary cuts across the board, with the distribution up to each director. My department (IT) was only three other people. I chose to eat the entire cut for the lowest paid guy, and half the cut for the other two guys. All in all I took almost a 20% cut in pay to keep my people happy.
Click to expand...

Who are you and what did you do with BoberFett?
 
BoberFett said:
I was at a failing company that mandated salary cuts across the board, with the distribution up to each director. My department (IT) was only three other people. I chose to eat the entire cut for the lowest paid guy, and half the cut for the other two guys. All in all I took almost a 20% cut in pay to keep my people happy.
Click to expand...

Legit, man. You're worthy of your avatar.
 
surfsatwerk said:
It's not comparable to "average Joes" at all. He is on a team with the supposed goal of winning. If his play isn't allowing the team to win he should be willing to adjust his pay to make more room under the salary cap.
Click to expand...

Tom Brady did that and the team rewarded him by giving hardball salary offers to anyone else on the team with talent. So Brady not only took the pay cut, but watched his best WR Wes Welker go to Broncos as an FA (because of like a $1MM difference on a $20+MM contract), his best OLineman Logan Mankins get traded to Tampa, etc.
 
I've done the 10% pay cut to avoid layoffs thing. In return, the company gave us half-day Fridays (essentially 10% fewer hours) which was awesome, then as a reward for the sacrifice they gave us half-day Fridays the following summer. The pay cut only lasted for the first summer.
 
SearchMaster said:
I've done the 10% pay cut to avoid layoffs thing. In return, the company gave us half-day Fridays (essentially 10% fewer hours) which was awesome, then as a reward for the sacrifice they gave us half-day Fridays the following summer. The pay cut only lasted for the first summer.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

This is why taxpayers have turned against the teacher's union. They are unwilling to make sacrifices in difficult times. Just today I saw that Philadelphia teachers were upset because they had to start paying for part of their health benefits. What planet do these people live on? Instead of making the needed sacrifices they are willing to take the city to court. The same thing happened in NJ. They were demanding raises while the state and country were suffering. Is it any wonder that people have turned against unions?
 
It's different when you already have more money than you know what to do with.
Why does Kobe need more when he already has more than anyone else?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top