On a cold winter night in Ketchum, Idaho, Chicago Stars midfielder Bea Franklin was pulling off a different sort of physical feat than what she usually does on the soccer field. Under the eyes of taxidermied animals at the Pioneer Saloon, she deftly balanced martinis as a cocktail waitress, wearing cowgirl boots and ensuring the olives didn’t drip when she walked down stairs. Franklin did not take a second job as a cocktail waitress in a Rocky Mountain ski resort town not out of necessity, but as a way to think about more than just the sport that has dominated much of her life.
Hardly half a decade ago, a player like Franklin, a 25-year-old in her third pro season, might have needed a job like this just to get by. Five years ago this summer, NWSL players organized the “No More Side Hustles” campaign to highlight the league’s low pay and the need for players to get second jobs while playing, training and working as full-time professional athletes. At the time, a third of the NWSL Players Association’s members made the league minimum salary of $22,000; 75% made $31,000 or less.
Jessica McDonald, a World Cup winner, worked at Amazon packing boxes for 10 hours a day while running training sessions for young players at night. Kristen Hamilton, a three-time league champion, drove for DoorDash. Others cleaned homes, worked as receptionists or mopped floors.
It spoke to a major problem that the league has, by and large, addressed successfully. The NWSLPA agreed to its first collective bargaining agreement with the league in 2022. Under the current CBA, reached in 2024, the minimum salary for players is $50,500 for the 2026 season – nearly the same amount as the maximum in 2021 ($52,500).
Now, with the security of a living wage, players are free to take on academic, professional and entrepreneurial pursuits. Not because they have to, but because they want to. Washington Spirit defender Gabrielle Carle is working on becoming a doctor after her playing career wraps.
She said she briefly considered doing both until realizing that was too ambitious, even for her. During the 2025 season, a career year for the full-back from Quebec, she studied during the season for the MCAT and then took the exam in January. The 27-year-old said she passed the score she hoped to reach and plans to take advantage of the three-year window to use the score in a medical school application.
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