Within Ivy League, Princeton among lowest in salary gap between coaches of men's and women's teams

Princeton ranked the second lowest among the Ivy League in athletic coaching salary disparities based on the team's gender, according to data gathered from the Office of Postsecondary Education for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

According to the Department of Education’s online Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool, the difference between average salaries for full time coaches of men’s teams and of women’s teams at Princeton is $16,817.

Full time head coaches of men’s teams earn about $124,744 on average and full time head coaches of women’s teams earn about $107,927on average.

The gender reported does not refer to the gender of the coach but rather that of the team. While male coaches dominate men’s sports in the Ivy League, many men also coach women’s teams and are thus included in the latter gender group. Specifically, even men coaching women’s teams suffered lower salaries.

Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux ’91 did not respond when reached for comment. Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Finance and Administration Chris Brock did not respond to request for comment, and Assistant Director of Athletics/Finance and Administration Ryan Yurko declined to comment.

Ever since the inception of the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act of 1994, colleges have been required to submit annual salary reports detailing expenditures and revenues for male and female teams. After the data has been collected and compiled, it is made public through the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool.

Princeton came in a close second to the University of Pennsylvania, whose difference hovers above $14,000. All other Ivy League schools demonstrated much steeper differences, ranging between $30,363 for Dartmouth and $45,886 for Harvard.

In addition to the salary gap, the Department of Educationshows that Princeton invested over 68 percent of its recruiting budget on men’s teams. The data suggests that while Princeton may rank relatively low in terms of salary gap, gender-based disparity within collegiate athletics still persists.

There are a number of factors that influence the difference, including the revenue for male and female teams. According to the Department of Educationdata, the grand revenue total for men’s teams is $10.2 million, which is significantly higher than the women's teams' revenue of $6.4 million.

The issue only worsens beyond Princeton, especially at athletically-high-performing state schools. A 2012 New York Times article on the same issue reported that the salary of the UNC Men’s Basketball Coach Roy Williams tripled that of his counterpart, Sylvia Hatchell.

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The article said thatwhile Title IX and the Equal Pay Act of 1963prevent different compensation for comparable amounts of work, collegiate coaching contracts often delegate more work to coaches of male teams to justify the additional pay. Furthermore, such contract disparities do not include the often third party bonuses that many high profile coaches receive, which only widen the salary gap.