Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe,Carli Lloyd, and Becky Sauerbrunn filed a wage-discrimination lawsuit Wednesday with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the U.S. Soccer Federation, which is exactly what they should’ve done considering the humongous wage disparity between the men’s and women’s national teams.
Here’s the salary breakdown, according to the New York Times: The women receive a base salary of$72,000 while also receiving win-bonuses of $1,350 per win. The men receive a per-game bonus of $5,000 and also receive a win-bonus. Their bonus is $3,166 per win
Both U.S. national soccer teams are required to play at least 20 exhibition matches against other countries every year.
Here’s how each team is paid throughout their 20-game schedules, according to Business Insider:
Without winning any of their games, the men’s team would still make $1,000 more than the women even if the men went undefeated for the entire year. Yikes.
However, the wage discrimination doesn’t stop at salaries alone. It also occurs when the US Soccer Federation doles out travel expenses, according to Business Insider:
The men receive $12.50 more per day for travel allowance than the women when traveling in America and $15.00 more when traveling to any other country. Earth to the US Soccer Federation, women are people with needs too.
It’s crystal clear that the female U.S. National Soccer Team players are being paid less than their male counterparts. However, some people might argue that the men deserve to make more money than the women because the men bring in more revenue each year.
Well, actually that argument is also faulty. According to ESPN, the women generated $20 million MORE than the men in 2015, so there really is no excuse for the women’s to be paid 75% less than the men’s team.
The argument could actually be made that the women’s team deserves to be paid MORE money than the men’s team based on recent on-field success.
In 2011, the women’s team finished as the FIFA World Cup runner-up,as they lost to Japan on penalty kicks.
In 2012, the women’s team avenged their World Cup loss by defeating Japan and winning the gold medal in the Olympics.
In 2015, the women’s team won the FIFA World Cup by defeating Japan in the final 5-2.
This year, the women’s team will be in Rio to defend their gold medal.
Let’s compare that run of dominance up to what the men have done within the last five or six years.
In 2010, the men were eliminated from the FIFA World Cup in the round of 16.
In 2012, the men did not qualify for the Summer Games in London.
In 2014, the men were eliminated from the FIFA World Cup in the round of 16.
This year, the men did not qualify for the Summer Games in Rio.
The women DESERVE to be paid the same amount that the men are because both teams truly do the exact same thing in terms of games played every year, except the women win more of their games.
Despite all of the women’s team success and the fact that gender equality is extremely important, U.S. Soccer issued a statement saying it was “disappointed” that the action was taken.
That statement reaks of sexism and a complete lack of common sense.
Have no fear, they did come to their senses and issued a second statement Thursday afternoon, saying it is “committed to and engaged” in negotiating a new Collective Bargaining Agreement “that addresses compensation with the U.S. women’s national team when the current CBA expires at the end of this year.”
Even though it took significant backlash for U.S. Soccer to come out with a new statement saying they would look into changing compensation with the women’s team, it’s a step in the right direction, which is exactly what’s going to take for the women to finally receive fair and just salaries.
