Closing the Wage Gap, one Tennis Player at a Time

Last year, when French tennis player Amelie Mauresmo won Wimbledon she made 1.17 million dollars in prize money. That's an amazing amount of money! But what shocked me was that she received $53,000 less than the men's Wimbledon winner, Roger Federer. Why? Just because she's a woman. In the January/February 2007 issue of New Moon, 12-year-old Sylvie wrote about the Wage Gap in America. On average, women make only 69 cents for every dollar a man earns. "That means that over my lifetime, I'll probably earn at least $700,000 less than boys my age, just because I'm female!" Sylvie points out in her article. "We need wage reform NOW," Sylvie adds. Well, I'm here to announce one small victory for women, and for Sylvie. Today, Wimbledon announced that it will pay women and men tennis champions equally! Go Brits! I hope companies across the world listen to message Wimbledon is sending--women deserve equality, and that means equal paychecks. Thanks for speaking up, Sylvie, and thanks for listening, Wimbledon!