U.S women’s soccer players sue the federation for more than $66 million?
February 21, 2020
The U.S women’s soccer league had sued the federation last March alleging institutionalized gender discrimination.
Players on the women’s national team had sued the federation last March. Alleging institutionalized gender discrimination that includes inequitable pay rate between the men’s and women’s teams.
“Women’s national team players are paid differently because they specifically asked for and negotiated a completely different contract than the men’s national team, despite being offered, and rejecting, a similar pay-to-play agreement during the past negotiations,” U.S. Soccer said in a statement.
Their preference was a contract that provides significant additional benefits that the men’s national team does not have, including guaranteed annual salaries, medical and dental insurance, paid child-care assistance, paid pregnancy and parental leave, severance benefits, salary continuation during periods of injury, access to a retirement plan, multiple bonuses and more.”
Molly Levinson, spokes women for the plaintiffs disputed the federations opinions.
“In the most recent CBA negotiation, USSF repeatedly said that equal pay was not an option regardless of pay structure,” Levinson said in a statement. “USSF proposed a pay to play structure’ with less pay across the board. In every instance for a friendly or competitive match, the women players were offered less pay that their male counterparts. This is the very definition of gender discrimination, and of course the players rejected it.”
As the women win their first World Cup, the crowds chants “Equal pay! Equal pay!”
Earlier this month, the players union for the men’s national team urged the federation to sharply increase pay for the women’s team, while also accusing the governing body of making low-ball offers in current contract negotiations with the men’s team.
Megan Rapinoe, the reigning FIFA Player of the Year, She said Russell Sawyer, an outside lawyer for the USSF, stated during a bargaining session in June 2016 that “market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men.”
What do you think about this? Should they get equal pay or just be grateful for what their getting?
Mike Pollis • Feb 24, 2020 at 5:40 pm
This is an interesting question: it seems like the women’s team is so much more popular, and gets more viewers, but do they generate the money that the men’s team does?
lapp • Feb 21, 2020 at 3:24 pm
I agree that they should definitely have all of the added benefits that the men have. Why would they not have paid parental leave? As for the actual amount of money, it’s hard to tell because of how shady the US soccer federation is. Do the men generate more money for the federation? We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that the women’s team is clearly more successful of the field.