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Pelkey: Highest Paid Hockey Player In NWHL Earned $6,000

Allen Douglas

Amanda Pelkey is one of 200 professional hockey players protesting inadequate compensation by refusing to play in any pro leagues in North America this season.

The Montpelier native helped bring home a gold medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, and has played hockey for the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League.  

Amanda Pelkey spoke to VPR's Mitch Wertlieb. Listen to their conversation above.

Pelkey described NWHL contracts as "essentially gas money," and said the highest paid NWHL contract for this season was $6,000. A statement shared on Twitter earlier this month by numerous players said some players earn as little as $2,000. According to the statement, the contracts do not include health insurance. 

Pelkey noted the NWHL is only in its fifth year. Still, she said, she and her colleagues are demanding "a professional league that is sustainable," financially stable, and which treats its players, "like professionals." 

Pelkey referred to the collective protest as a "gap year," and called it "one of the biggest things that we collectively can do."

A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
Emily Corwin reported investigative stories for VPR until August 2020. In 2019, Emily was part of a two-newsroom team which revealed that patterns of inadequate care at Vermont's eldercare facilities had led to indignities, injuries, and deaths. The consequent series, "Worse for Care," won a national Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting, and placed second for a 2019 IRE Award. Her work editing VPR's podcast JOLTED, about an averted school shooting, and reporting NHPR's podcast Supervision, about one man's transition home from prison, made her a finalist for a Livingston Award in 2019 and 2020. Emily was also a regular reporter and producer on Brave Little State, helping the podcast earn a National Edward R. Murrow Award for its work in 2020. When she's not working, she enjoys cross country skiing and biking.
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