# why do they tell us pro athletes' salaries?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-tell-us-pro-athletes-salaries/628245>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 14, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-tell-us-pro-athletes-salaries/628245 "2012-07-14T19:54:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-tell-us-pro-athletes-salaries/628245/21 "2012-07-16T17:55:28Z")

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Name the people who would benefit for keeping athletes salaries secret.

The owner (maybe)  
Name the people who would benefit by the info being available.

Player - negotiating strength as salary sets marker  
Union (by extension) - open salary info encourages fair negotiation  
Players representative/lawyer - a big salary is huge feather in his cap as a negotiator

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**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-tell-us-pro-athletes-salaries/628245/22 "2012-07-16T18:03:10Z")

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> [@Lukeinva](#):
>
> When Jaromir Jagr [ahem] played for the Washington Capitals I was really entertained to learn his bi-weekly paycheck was $900,000.

There you go. You are certainly emotionally involved because you are privy to that information and likely to follow the games.

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