When Hamilton’s new Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) team takes to the ice this fall, they’ll be sharing an arena with the Hamilton Hammers — a renamed and relocated American Hockey League (AHL) team that serves as a farm team for the NHL’s New York Islanders.
But despite the women playing at the highest and only professional level available, they could earn less than men playing in the development league. Recent PWHL salary disclosures indicate the lowest-paid players on the women’s team could earn about $27,000 less than the lowest-paid players on the men’s team.
According to league spokesperson Jason Chaimovitch, the minimum salary for an AHL contract next season is $56,500 US, or roughly $78,000 Cdn.
Citing transparency to strengthen pay negotiations, the Professional Women’s Hockey League players union published members’ salaries online this week, sparking conversation about the differences in pay between men and women hockey stars.
According to those disclosures, 121 players made less than that last season, including 17 making the league minimum of $37,131.50 US — about $51,000 Cdn — a figure that increases by three per cent each season, according to the 2023 collective bargaining agreement players signed with ownership.
That agreement, which is in place until July 31, 2031, doesn’t assign a maximum salary players can make.
Players are locked into this salary framework for the duration of their agreement, so aren’t likely to see large pay increases beyond the annual three per cent increase all players receive, CBC Sports has reported.
The salary disclosures do not include bonuses.
AHL player’s salaries are not public, so it’s unclear what the top players in that league make.
The highest-earning PWHL player last season was Emily Clark of the Ottawa Charge at $126,090 US. There are nine other players who made over six figures in U.S. dollars, including Burlington, Ont.’s Renata Fast, who earned $106,090 US.
The NHL’s minimum salary is $775,000 US.
Michele Donnelly, a sports management professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., told CBC Hamilton it’s notable that women playing at the “highest and only” professional level could earn less than men in a development league.
But when comparing minimum salaries for Hamilton’s incoming teams, it’s important to consider the difference in league structures and history, she added.
The PWHL launched in 2024. The AHL was founded in a merger in the 1930s.
AHL teams are owned by NHL teams, but each team in the PWHL is owned by American investment company The Walter Group.
“One of the biggest challenges” professional women’s sports leagues face is an expectation they’ll immediately be able compete with their men’s counterparts for revenue generation and audience, Donnelly said, but that’s a “false equivalency.”
Still, she said, pro women’s leagues including the PWHL and WNBA are rapidly growing and it’s good to see compensation starting to reflect that.
“A lot of it is, are you being paid enough to live on and are you being paid enough to live on as a full-time professional athlete?” Donnelly said. “We’ve seen incredibly high levels of hockey being played and that can only increase as athletes have the opportunity to live and train full-time as professional athletes.”
The PWHL Players Association’s salary release helps fans advocate for the athletes they pay to watch, she said.
“They’re the reason that fans are showing up and tuning in,” Donnelly said. “It’s important that people understand where the money is going.”
Recently named Hamilton general manager Meghan Duggan was part of a 2017 dispute with USA Hockey that led to a contract for the women’s national team to pay players at a time when there was no professional path to make a living wage in the sport.
“You think about where women’s sports, women’s hockey, professional women’s hockey have gone since then,” Duggan told reporters Thursday. “Back then, women’s professional hockey players really were not making a whole lot, and now we have this league where players are making a living and and beyond.”
Duggan said players deserve to be well paid after the PWHL worked to build a successful league.
“They and the staff have put butts in the seats and created something,” Duggan said. “We’re only going to continue to improve from here. But I love knowing that a lot of the women are being paid for the effort that they’ve put in for so long.”
Donnelly, the professor, said that when the topic of pay disparities between men and women athletes comes up, she often hears a “knee-jerk reaction” of people scoffing at the idea of women ever being paid the same as male stars, who can earn multi-million-dollar contracts.
There’s a “lazy but persistent belief” people don’t want to watch women’s sport because it’s not as exciting or good as men’s sport, Donnelly said.
Women’s sports haven’t had the same opportunities to shine, she said, but leagues like the PWHL show when they do, audiences and businesses are interested. The PWHL is expanding to 12 teams next season with expansion teams also coming to Detroit, Las Vegas, and San Jose, Calif., in addition to Hamilton.
“We don’t know the value of these things because they haven’t been allowed to develop their own value independently,” Donnelly said.
PWHL Hamilton expansion announcement
Previously, she said, there was an idea women’s sports was a guaranteed loss but worth supporting from a moral standpoint. That narrative “should hopefully be dead and buried.”
Still, she said, progress isn’t guaranteed.
“If there’s not an intention and consistent commitment to an investment, it’s so easy to go backwards,” she said.
