Are Actors and Professional Athletes Paid Too Much Essay

Are Actors and Professional Athletes Paid Too Much - Essay Example However, when these payments are compared to other classes of labor in the American labor market, it becomes evident that celebrities are paid far more than other classes of labor. This phenomenon has resulted in an active debate that seems unbridgeable – are actors and professional athletes paid too much? One extreme end of the debate believes that actors and professional athletes are paid too much compared to the services they offer while the other extreme end holds that such compensation is fair because it is based on market principles. This text will deconstruct the debate from either end in order to find a more manageable stance on the issue. 2. Background The compensation provided to actors, professional athletes and other celebrities exceeds average payment figures for the top CEOs in corporate America. Not only this, these celebrities continue to receive large sums of money after their retirement from professional careers using means such as branding, advertising and p romotion of goods and services. It could therefore be surmised that these celebrities continue to be paid exuberantly throughout the course of their lives. In contrasts to these celebrities, the average American professional worker is paid far less by a large order of magnitude. Increasing economic pressure in the wake of the global economic crunch has forced many professional workers to consider their income levels as low. Critics argue that professionals who are more critical to the functioning of society such as law enforcement professionals, doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers etc. should be paid more for their services. 3. Body One of the primary causes for high payments doled out to celebrities is disparity between demand and supply of professionally excellent celebrities. Hundreds of thousands of actors and professional athletes dot the United States but only a few are able to achieve demigod status based on their performance. The structure of the sports and entertainment mark ets also favors the more competent celebrities (Rosen and Sanderson). A common observation in the entertainment and sports industry is that celebrities are able to develop a personal following that allows them to bring in crowds of spectators to movie theaters and sports stadiums (Hausman and Leonard). Based on this â€Å"cult† following of celebrities their value addition to business processes becomes critical. This reason mandates for different teams to buy the most glamorous athletes and for movie producers to cast the most glamorous of actors. When overall business evaluation is carried out, it becomes obvious that the share of these celebrities in improving business revenues is undeniable (Fort and Quirk) and so it is common for them to be paid highly. The more affluent celebrities can be thought of as business partners – the investor provides the requisite fiscal liquidity while the celebrities provide the requisite market in the form of fans and followers. Hence , celebrities are a critical part of the equation that determines returns in the entertainment and sports industries so they are compensated highly in order to hold their interests in place. In contrast, others argue that paying celebrities highly is not rational and tends to distort the society and labor market structures badly. The glorification of celebrities as well as their glamorous ways tends to attract a lot of attention which is their selling point. This selling point means that many young