wanting to further add: the same unions fighting for athletes' wages are the ones fighting for their safety.
motorsport athletes dying horrible, bloody deaths was a very routine occurrence before unions and before the drivers in those unions started pushing for safety measures and demanding their right to live and receive treatment.
a major catalyst for this was when jackie stewart, in 1966, hit a telephone pole during an f1 race at spa-francorchamps. he was hung upside down in his car, waist-deep in gasoline, with severe injuries for 25 minutes until other drivers freed him using a fan's toolkit. then he was taken to a dirty shack and placed on the cigarette butt-strewn floor because that was the "care center" for the track. he nearly died - then he started viciously fighting for safety measures, even against his own fellow drivers. he was the chairman of the drivers union from 1972-1978, a period which oversaw a great deal of safety improvements in the sport and a change in the mindset about the need for them.
paying athletes a fair wage, which is to say their fair share of the profits generated by the risks they take (whether you like the popularity of sports or not), makes them an investment to the governing body of their sport and to their team. it incentivizes them to care about their players' safety, if not because it's the right thing to do, than because your hottest commodities, your best players, not being on the field/pitch/ice/track/etc isn't gonna help sell tickets or streaming subscriptions or merch.
