Salary
Average Salary: $70,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,922,360
There's no pro rugby team in the USA, so there's no salary to speak of. Most of the USA team members are amateur players in a pro-level game, with high risk of injury for little or no pay. It's strictly for the love of the game.
If you're playing rugby, you're probably doing it on weekends away from your real job (source). Some leagues will pay a small stipend per game, usually for mileage, food, and expenses. But you won't get health insurance, and believe us—you'll need it. You can plan on shelling out a bundle for that.
If you're part of the wave of NFL football players being recruited and shipped off to England to play (mostly retired NFL players or college kids who just missed the NFL draft by a hair), or you're a pro player from a country that actually cares about the game, there can be big money for the top players on the national team.
For instance, typical rugby players in England start out with low wages but quickly re-negotiate, so that the average English pro player is making about $70,000 to $130,000 a year (source). Of course, they're going to pay you in pounds instead of dollars, but we're sure some bank will let you exchange it.
Bakkies Botha, until he retired in 2014, was one of the highest paid rugby players in the world, making almost $56,000 a month—that's $672,000 a year (source). That's some big money for the world of pro rugby. Then again, compare that to Peyton Manning's $230,000,000 career earnings, give or take a few seasons (source). Remember what we said about there being very little money in rugby? We weren't kidding.