Members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team have won a historic battle for equal pay. The victory marks a before and after for the national team, which has been fighting for equal pay since 2016. The battle finally ended Tuesday after U.S. Soccer, the sport’s national federation, agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement to compensate players who systematically receive less support and money than their male counterparts.
US Soccer will pay $24 million (€21 million) in compensation, of which $22 million (€19 million) will be split among the players. The remaining $2 million (€1.76 million) will be used to support players once they retire from the sport and for initiatives related to promoting equality in football.
“When we win, everyone wins,” said Megan Rapinoe, a star of the women’s soccer team and a symbol of both the fight for equality in U.S. sports and the LGBTQ+ community, in a message on Twitter. Rapinoe appeared on the TV show Tuesday morning Good morning Americaalongside his teammate and soccer star Alex Morgan, who has also been one of the most visible faces of the team’s fight for equal pay.
“This is a huge step forward in feeling valued, feeling respected and mending our relationship with U.S. Soccer,” Morgan said. “I don’t just see it as a victory for our team or for women’s sport, but for women in general,” added the forward, who has scored 115 goals in 190 international appearances.
US Soccer and the player shared a press release on social media to provide more details on the resolution of the lawsuit. “Getting to this point hasn’t been easy. The U.S. women’s national team players have achieved unprecedented success as they worked to achieve equal pay for themselves and future athletes,” it read. The Football Association also agreed to pay the women’s and men’s national teams equally.
The legal dispute began in 2016 when five players – Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn and Hope Solo – filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging pay discrimination. Three years later, 28 members of the women’s national soccer team filed a lawsuit against US Soccer in federal court in California for engaging in the same discrimination. The players pointed out that US Soccer paid men a minimum of $5,000 (4,400 euros) per match, while female players were only paid if they won against a team that was in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings.
The complaint was dismissed by a judge in May 2020, arguing there was no reason to resolve the salary disputes in court. But the players did not give up and appealed the sentence. “Obviously we can’t go back and undo the injustices that we’ve faced, but the only justice that comes from this is that we know something like this will never happen again,” Rapinoe said. Good morning Americaadding, “It’s an amazing day.”
When the French men’s soccer team won the World Cup in 2018, FIFA awarded the team $36 million (€32 million) for the victory. But when the US women’s soccer team won the Women’s World Cup in 2019, it received only $4 million (4.5 million euros). The United States men’s soccer team was eliminated in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup, but was paid 4.5 million euros ($5.11 million), while the women’s team received just 1.45 million euros ($1.64 million) for winning the competition. The U.S. women’s soccer team has won four Women’s World Cup titles (1991, 1999, 2015 and 2019) and four Olympic gold medals.
