The women’s US soccer team recently sued US Soccer after years of arguments over pay and working conditions. The women’s team features soccer stars like Alex Morgan,Becky Sauerbrunn, Ali Krieger and Hope Solo. The team claims that the discrimination against their team since they are women, affects their training and medical care. The suit is similar to the complaints filed in 2016 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, about gender discrimination and unfair wages but a lack fom progress caused the team to file a full lawsuit with the Federation on March 1st.
In May of 2016, Becky Sauerbrunn, Ali Krieger and Hope Solo, all members of the US team, were featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Hasan Minhaj’s satirical interview which was filled with facts from the women’s team, helped viewers actually understand the reasoning why the women’s team wants equality after their original federal complaint for equal pay against the US Soccer Federation was filed.
When Minhaj mentioned that the men made it to round 16 of the World Cup, the team responded that they have won 3 World Cups and 4 gold medals.
In addition, the women's team outranks the men team which is 30th in the world, but the women's team is number 1. And while some will say the differences in pay and conditions is because the men’s soccer team gets more views, the women hold the record for the most watched game in the history of America, while also bringing about $17 million in profit for the Federation in 2015 while the men lost $2 million that same year.
The wage gap between the mens and womens team is also huge, their base pay per game is $3,600, if the women’s team wins they get paid a bonus around $1,300 [ as of the 2016 interview] while the men make can make a bonus of anything between $6,250 to $17,625 per win, according to the New York Times [as of 2016] including base pay of $5,000, and in the event the men’s team loses they still make $5,000 base pay, yet the women are paid nothing. In addition women make about $750 less during sponsorship then the men do according to the New York Times in 2016.
In addition to wanting to have equal wages, the women's team wants better conditions for training, having tweeted pictures of being able to pull the Astroturf up on their field, astroturf is connected with greater risks of injury and the men’s team never plays on anything except actual grass. The last time the women’s team played on an actual grass field since 2017.
The issues over pay has existed for almost a full twenty years, in 2000, months after winning the World Cup, the women’s team boycotted a tournament in Australia over the issue of pay. This year, FIFA doubled the winnings for the world cup after the complaints were filed, since the difference in bonuses was drastic. Men teams received over $400 million dollars while the women teams only received $30 million dollars.
The women's team has the support of Billie Jean King, a trailblazing tennis star whose victory over Bobby Riggs in the 1973 Battle of the Sexes, created equal pay in tennis. The ongoing dispute is having effects worldwide, the Brazil team had several members quit after their female coach was fired for a man and changes are being made, including allowing the team to fly on a chartered plane between matches in March. After Norway succeeded in gaining equal pay and the Argentine and Colombian teams have made known their own mistreatment and unfair pay. The team feels this is their responsibility as women to the world, Megan Rapinoe said, “not only for our team and for future U.S. players, but for players around the world — and frankly women all around the world — to feel like they have an ally in standing up for themselves, and fighting for what they believe in, and fighting for what they deserve and for what they feel like they have earned.”
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