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Who earns more – an NBA referee or an NFL referee – salary of officials of both the sports compared.

NBA referees (Image credit: Dunk or Three)

The National Basketball Association against the National Football League is a debate that has gone on over the course of time. While people have debated whether the NBA is tougher than the NFL and whether the NBA players get paid more than the NFL players, another topic that has been an age-old debate is who gets paid more – an NBA or an NFL referee.

As it turns out, we have the answer to the age-old debate. It turns out that an NBA official earns way more than an NFL official. It is estimated that an NBA official earns up to three times that of an NFL official, however, there might just be a reason for the huge difference in payment.

How much do the NBA and NFL officials earn on an estimate?

Though the official salaries for both NBA and NFL officials are not to be disclosed, we can make an estimate of how much both sets of officials earn.

NFL referee salary
An NFL referee

Based on the pay figures in the expired NFL CBA, it turns out that an NFL official earned an average of $205,000 per year. The year before, the officials earned an estimated $149,000, so it turns out that the salary substantially increased over the course of a season.

NFL referees receive their payments on the basis of every game, and hence they earn about $12,000 per game and multiply it for the 16 games in an NFL season. Tom Gerencer of Money Nation revealed that the average salary of an NFL referee is in six figures, and is a very lucrative job even though the payment isn’t as well paying as that of a referee in the NBA.

It turns out that the average salary of an NBA referee goes up to approximately $550,000. It is a whopping amount of money for a match official in America’s premium basketball league – however, it has to be kept in mind that a basketball season goes on for 82 games compared to the 16 in the NFL. Hence, the difference in payment may just be justified.

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