Flying Sand | Hong Kong women’s soccer is led by a guy called Rambo, but are they paid like men?
Niall Fraser says it’s time to stop using free market as excuse for gender gap in salaries, as Norway’s team shows the way to fair pay
Please put to one side the delightful fact that the current head coach of the Hong Kong women’s football team is a man called Rambo – I am not kidding – and consider the following development, which you almost certainly missed.
Earlier this month, Norway decided that its elite female footballers would be paid exactly the same as their male counterparts when they play for the national team.
The groundbreaking move should, rightly, be considered a historic blow for gender equality, whatever slings and arrows of statistical and sociological sophistry are thrown its way in an attempt to undermine it.
In stark, no-nonsense terms, the Scandinavian nation – famous for fjords and salmon not quite as delicious as that of the Scottish variety – having previously allotted 3.1 million kronor (HK$3 million) a year to the women – less than half the amount given to the men – will now give 6 million kronor per annum to the nation’s first female 11.
And just to rub it in, like a stinging pre-match muscle spray, the 6.55 million kronor budget traditionally doled out to the men’s national team has been trimmed by 550,000 kronor to bring bottom-line parity to the two teams.
It should also be noted that this move has the overwhelming backing of the population of Norway, which, the last time I looked, was made up of men and women.
