Gender Differences in NCAA Non-Revenue Sports : An Examination of Men’s and Women’s Soccer Coaching Salaries

This paper examines the determinants of head coaching salaries in men’s and women’s collegiate soccer. Both of these sports are considered non-revenue sports, and thus differences in sports revenues should not impact coaching salaries. We analyze salaries of head coaches in these sports to determine if i) coaches in women’s soccer earn systematically less than coaches of men’s soccer, and ii) whether there is a difference in salaries between male and female coaches of women’s soccer. We find that salaries for coaches of women’s soccer are lower than those for men’s soccer. We also find that there is no statistically significant difference in the earnings between male and female coaches of women’s soccer. We use financial data from public, Division 1 universities to examine this issue. As found in previous literature on basketball and football coaching salaries, coaching salaries are primarily determined by the size of the University athletic budget and the proportion of resources dedicated to the sport