Summary: The women’s soccer team is not going to let their unfair wage treatment go unaddressed any longer, filing an action against the soccer federation.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team generated around $20 million more revenue than the men’s team but is paid nearly four times less. Five members of the women’s team are not willing to let this slide anymore. The women – Hope Solo, Alex Morgan Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn and Carli Lloyd filed a wage-discrimination action on behalf of the entire team against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Rapinoe said in a news release, “Recently, it has become clear that the Federation has no intention of providing us equal pay for equal work.” The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will hold an investigation to determine if the women’s team is warranted compensation.
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Law firm Winston & Strawn and its co-chairman Jeffrey Kessler filed the action. Kessler has represented a number of players unions and athletes such as Tom Brady and Ray Rice in their dealings with professional organizations and leagues.
Kessler explained the reason for the action in a statement, “In early January, the Women’s National Team Players Association submitted a reasonable proposal for a new CBA that had equal pay for equal work as its guiding principle. U.S. Soccer responded by suing the players in an effort to keep in place the discriminatory and unfair treatment they have endured for years.”
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U.S. Soccer is currently involved in a legal dispute with the union representing the players over the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The union argues that the contract can be terminated at any time while the federation holds that the contract runs through the Olympics in Rio.
The details of the EEOC filing cite that the women can earn $99,000 each if they win 20 friendlies but the men can earn $263,320 for the same number of games. The men get $100,000 even if they lose all 20 games. The women do not receive extra pay for playing over 20 games whereas the men receive between $5,000 and $17,625 for each game over 20.
Photo: teamusa.org