Professional athletes have been paid to play a variety of sports for the past one hundred and fifty years. Most players manage to perfectly practice the sport they love while being paid more than the average public employee (policeman, firefighter and teacher), instead they receive huge salaries that many people would only dream of having. Professional athletes' salaries have increased dramatically tenfold in the last 50 years and show that they earn a huge amount of wealth, which in most opinions may be absurd. Athletes are paid too much to even play the game they love to play. Having athletes paid 5 times the income of an average family (Block) is outrageous and should be reduced. Athletes receiving huge salaries haven't been around for long, it's only been an issue for 20-30 years. An average infielder in the 1950s only earned the equivalent of $89,000 compared to the $2.13 million (in 1992) that an average MLB player currently earns in a year (Zimbalist 92). Although MLB was smaller in the 1950s, the increase in average MLB salaries is not proportional to the increased popularity over the years. The minimum wage for an MLB player is 32 times higher than the minimum wage for a New Yorker. The minimum wage is $480,000 for a baseball player who will mostly sit on the bench for the entire game, while a standard minimum wage job of 40 hours per week only pays about $15,080 (Block). Lou Gehrig was paid the equivalent of $431,000, while the minimum wage MLB player today makes about $50,000 more than that amount (Seepersaud). Lou Gehrig, one of the most talented players in MLB history, was paid below the MLB minimum wage today, which is very strange. Athletes back then were paid much more realistic amounts... middle of paper... salaries-of-a-pro-athlete/the-average-income-of-an-athlete-has-increased-over-five -times>Bryjak, George J. "The name of the game is money." USA Today [Magazine] September 1998: 67+. Student resources in context. Network. April 16, 2014.Haupert, Michael. "Baseball's Major Salary Milestones. (More Modern Topics)." The Baseball Research Journal September 22, 2011: n. page Print.Marci, Kenneth. "Not Just a Game: Sports and Society in the United States." RSS. Np, nd Web. . .Owens, Ted. Personal interview. April 12, 2014. Seepersaud, Steve. “Sports Salaries: Then and Now.” AskMen Web. .< http://www.askmen.com/sports/business_100/119_sports_business.html>Zimbalist, Andrew S.. Baseball and Billions: An In-Depth Look at the Big Business of Our National Pastime. New York, NY: BasicBooks, 1992. Print.