And while we like to think of athletes as rich, the reality for most is they only play in the highest league for a small amount of time making minimum salaries, if they even get salaries.

In most PGA tournaments, if you miss the cut (about half of the players working for the PGA that week) you don't get paid anything! Now recently, due to competition with LIV they have a minimum yearly base winnings of 500,000 each year. Before there was nothing and you could even lose lots of money because of traveling and equipment expenses.

In baseball, no matter how you perform you earn a minimum of $740,000/yr prorated to days on an MLB roster. They have a players union.

For tennis (ATP), the top 250 players have a minimum salary of $75,000, and less if you get injured. Tennis also requires a lot of traveling so this is truly not much money. There is 0 guarantee for salaries or earnings if you end up playing poorly that year. Instead of being fired for poor performance eventually, you have to quit yourself because they wouldn't pay you or you're afraid they won't pay you based on your performance. There is no guarantee or regular employment structure. The players don't have a union.

I'm not familiar with all these sports leagues. Please leave your own thoughts and more info about other sports and unions you find relevant.

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