ESPN Broadcaster Says He's 'Underpaid' Compared to White Counterparts as He Makes $10M Per Year
Imagine getting paid more than 10 million dollars a year to talk about sports.
This man does, and it’s still not enough.
Stephen A. Smith all but criticized his own ESPN bosses for underpaying him in a Saturday segment, all while claiming that women and black people are underpaid in America.
“Women are underpaid compared to male counterparts, blacks are underpaid compared to white counterparts,” Smith claimed, falling back on an argument long made by the Left that ignores countless economic variables.
Smith pivoted seamlessly to a gripe about his own pay, speaking in the context of a discussion about the lack of black players on the rosters of either of baseball’s World Series teams.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says he is underpaid because he’s black
He makes $8 million a year pic.twitter.com/wffqohrmr5
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 30, 2022
“I’m not talking about me, even though I got news for you — I am underpaid compared to some people on television, for what they get paid,” Smith went off, contradicting his first statement instantly.
Some of Smith’s critics noticed the irony.
“Imagine sitting there making $8 million complaining about being underpaid while starvation is increasing around the world, and people can barely afford to pay for gas and food. You are a privileged coward,” one user tweeted.
Imagine sitting there making $8 million complaining about being underpaid while starvation is increasing around the world, and people can barely afford to pay for gas and food. You are a privileged coward @stephenasmith. Even worse making it about the color of your skin.
— Johnny on the Spot (@Johnnyo42740722) October 30, 2022
The New York Post indicated that Smith is raking in an annual $12 million a year at ESPN as of July 2021.
The sports commentator gets $8 million from his annual ESPN contract and makes an additional $4 million through a post-production agreement.
There’s something rich (no pun intended) about a very wealthy millionaire bemoaning the average wages paid to other people. Not to mention the idea of a person with an annual salary of $12 million claiming to be “underpaid,” period.
Maybe if Smith’s employment weren’t such a significant expense for ESPN, the network could afford to pay much more to its entry-level employees who actually need better wages.
Job listing platform Zippia estimates that the median annual salary at ESPN is $60,383. That’s not exactly a pittance, but it’s probably not enough to sustain a family in the area of the network’s Bristol, Connecticut, headquarters.
If low wages are such a problem of great concern to Smith, perhaps he could make the generous and easy gesture of simply giving up half of his annual millions with the understanding the funds will be used to give pay increases to ESPN’s entry-level staff.
Such a gesture would be genuinely worthy of recognition and would earn Smith public praise. There’s no reason to believe he’s considering anything of the sort, however.
It’s often easy to dump the blame on the “system” rather than taking a look in the mirror and finding a plank in your own eye.
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