Didn't old school professional players used to have to work in between seasons? I remember reading about Tommy doing insurance during the summer. And he was one of the bigger names in the league.
Once the sport picks up more they can pay them accordingly. The WNBA has come a long way from it's early days and I know women's hockey is not as popular as women's basketball.
It's too bad they have to sit out championship games to make a point. That's a great time to increase brand image.
The thing is, the WNBA really hasn't come a long way. This from a NYTimes article last year:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/28/sports/basketball/after-two-decades-wnba-still-struggling-for-relevance.htmlHalf of the W.N.B.A.’s 12 teams lose money, and they benefit from revenue generated by the N.B.A.’s national television and sponsorship deals. This season, the $25 million the W.N.B.A. is getting from its primary broadcaster, ESPN, is a tiny fraction of the N.B.A.’s average $930 million payment from ESPN and TNT, which will rise to about $2.6 billion next season.
In a rare and candid moment last year, James L. Dolan, who owns the W.N.B.A.’s Liberty and the N.B.A.’s Knicks, told HBO’s “Real Sports” that he came close to handing the franchise back to the league in 2015.
“It hasn’t made money,” he said. “Its prospects of making money, at that time and even today, are still slim.”
The WNBA has obviously benefited by partnering with the NBA and using the same name (reasons why a league such as the ABL, started at the same time as the WNBA, failed).
It's not really about how hard these women work or how skilled they are, if people aren't interested enough in their sport, then it won't make money and they won't be able to make a living playing that sport. Unfortunately for them it is a business.
Now I don't know the details of how much money USA Women's Hockey (specifically) brings in (or how much Olympic athletes actually get paid, in general), but it seems that for women's hockey to succeed, they may need the help of the NHL, not USA Hockey.