Swiss footballer Alisha Lehmann has called out the ‘unfair’ gender pay gap between herself and her boyfriend, Douglas Luiz, who both play for the same club.
“I’m not a star, I’m a normal person. I go home, I cook, I do the same thing as everyone else,” Lehmann told the Italian publication La Repubblica.
“After training, I often tell Douglas that it’s unfair. We do the same job, but he earns 100,000 times more than me.”
Lehmann joined football club Juventus this year and made her Serie A Femminile debut on 1 September, netting a goal from the bench in a 6-3 victory.
While Lehmann’s exact salary isn’t made public, it’s been reported that Juventus bought the midfielder for £42,000 while her partner Luiz joined the Italian giants for some £42 million.
It’s also reasonable to estimate that Lehmann is making a comparable amount to her salary of $200k per year that she made previously with the football club Aston Villa. Meanwhile Ai Score data estimates her boyfriend Luiz’s salary sits at about $7 million.
Both the women’s and men’s side of Juventus remain unbeaten to start the Serie A season.
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Lehmann said: “Everyone would like to have the same salary”.
“It’s something that affects me because I’m a woman. Obviously, there’s still a long way to go on the path we’re on because there may never be equal pay.”
“There will have to be a very strong will to make a change in this direction.”
The 26-year-old boasts an Instagram following of 17 million, where she posts about her personal and professional life. This is significant, considering Luiz’s Instagram following sits at 1.5 million, and even internationally applauded athlete Roger Federer has less than her, at 12.7 million.
She’s been vocal about the online abuse that female athletes receive as well.
“If someone comes to me with jokes, I always ask them ‘have you ever seen a match?’ Probably not, because when you see a match you realise how good and passionate we are.”
Women’s sporting salaries in Australia
Here in Australia, the issue of the gender pay gap within women’s sport is still present, despite the unbridled support shown to the Matildas following the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Increased viewing and attendance at women’s sporting events means that in 2024, women’s sport is projected to generate an estimated $US1.28 billion ($1.9 billion) in revenue globally, according to the latest data from Deloitte.
Interest in women’s sport is at an all-time high, with this being the first time that annual global revenues for women’s sport will have surpassed US$1 billion.
And yet, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, the gender pay gap in 2021-22 in the sports and recreation industry was 22.8 per cent in Australia.
The pay disparity for women’s sport is profound even for those at the peak of their career. Matildas superstar Sam Kerr isn’t even paid the same as what male soccer players in the UK can earn in a month. Kerr, who plays for Chelsea in the Women’s Super League, earns around $600,000 to $700,000 per season.
There’s long been conversation around investment into women’s sport, with the lack of it being called into question. Research shows that every dollar corporate sponsors invest in women’s sport is worth $7.29 in customer value in the Australian market, highlighting that women’s sport is profitable and offers opportunity in more areas than one.