Pleading Poverty.

This man at your left is already well off, and will be even more so when he arrives in Los Angeles in July to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy (and supposedly to revolutionize and improve MLS' image; I'm not quite buying it.)

But this isn't really about David Beckham or his salary; it's got more to do with the rest of the league's players, many of them whom apparently pull in less money in a year than I do, according to the report released by the MLS' players union:

[Beckham's] $6.5 million in average guaranteed annual salary is well ahead of Chicago Fire forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco's $2.6 million, New York Red Bulls forward Juan Pablo Angel's $1.59 million, Red Bulls midfielder Claudio Reyna's $1.25 million, Galaxy forward Landon Donovan's $900,000 and Kansas City Wizards forward Eddie Johnson's $875,000.

They are the six highest-paid players in the league. What troubles the union, though, is that there are 57 players earning the league minimum of $12,900 and another 36 earning [Galaxy rookie Ty] Harden's $17,700 salary.

"From our perspective, it's the level of the low end that's the big issue," [union executive director Bob] Foose said. "It's a big, big problem. A third of the league has to ask their parents for money to pay the rent."

The senior member minimum is 30K, and the development contract is that league minimum of just under 13K annually. The figures were released by the union in a hope to shame MLS into improving the situation. Most of the time, we're pretty jaded about these sorts of things with pro athletes looking for more money, but when some of your players are probably calling Mom and Dad every month to help with the utility bills in big cities with high costs of living, it may be worth revisiting the pay scale a bit.

A Pay Scale Of Disparity [L.A. Times]