The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) declared on Wednesday that beginning of the next year, women’s minimum starting salary in domestic cricket will match those of males.
Beginning with the 2025 season, eight counties will host tier-one teams in the women’s domestic pyramid; this number will rise to nine the following year and ten in 2027.
At the “rookie” level, which is usually a player’s first professional contract, and at the “senior pro” position, which is for those who have made a name for themselves in first teams, there will be salary parity.
According to the BBC, a rookie’s minimum wage would be o20,000 ($26,750), which would increase to o28,000 at the senior pro level. This would likely be their first professional contract.
It has also been agreed that each of the eight first-class counties awarded tier-one status must invest at least o500,000 on player salary costs.
A salary cap of o800,000 has been confirmed, with minimum squad sizes of 15 contracted players.
“Equalising starting salaries across our men’s and women’s professional domestic game is another positive step forward for women’s cricket in England and Wales,” said Beth Barrett-Wild, the ECB director of the women’s professional game.
Emma Reid, the Professional Cricketers’ Association director of player rights and women’s cricket, said: “This is a big step towards reaching parity and a journey that the PCA is fully committed to achieving.”
Last year, an Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) report said discrimination, including sexism, was “widespread” in English cricket and that women received an “embarrassingly small amount compared to men”.
It stated that for white-ball matches, match fees for the England women’s team were 25% of those given to the men’s team, while for Test matches, the percentage was just 15%.
Following similar actions by other countries, the ECB declared in August 2023 that England’s women cricket players will get the same match money as their male counterparts.
The ECB did not, however, concur with every suggestion made in the study, particularly with regard to equal pay for men and women.
Equal average pay and prize money for domestic cricket by 2029, as well as equal average pay and prize money overall at the international level by 2030, were demanded in the ICEC report.
