For six years, a group of America’s best female soccer players led a legal fight to attain equal pay with their male counterparts. On Tuesday, those players reached a $24 million agreement with their employer and governing body, the U.S. Soccer Federation, that includes backpay and a promise to equalize compensation across genders going forward.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The proposed deal calls for U.S. Soccer to pay $22 million to the class, which includes 61 women, plus $2 million into a fund that those players can access for post-career goals and charitable efforts in women’s and girls’ soccer. Each player will be able to apply for up to $50,000 from the fund.
“For our generation, knowing that we’re going to leave the game in an exponentially better place than when we found it is everything,” 36-year-old midfielder Megan Rapinoe told The Associated Press. “That’s what it’s all about because, to be honest, there is no justice in all of this if we don’t make sure it never happens again.”
The landmark settlement is contingent on the U.S. women’s soccer team ratifying a new collective bargaining agreement with the Federation. The New York Times adds:
In exchange for the payout and U.S. Soccer’s pledge to address equal pay in future contracts with its two marquee teams, the women’s players agreed to release the federation from all remaining claims in the team’s gender discrimination lawsuit.
The process could take months. The men’s and women’s team already have held joint negotiating sessions with U.S. Soccer, but to make the deal work — the federation is seeking a single collective bargaining agreement that covers both national teams — the men’s players association will have to agree to share, or surrender, millions of dollars in potential World Cup payments from FIFA, world soccer’s governing body. Those payments, set by FIFA and exponentially larger for the men’s World Cup than the corresponding women’s tournament, are at the heart of the equal pay divide.
NBC News drills down on the specifics:
The disparity in pay between men and women is stark. FIFA awarded $400 million in prize money for the 32 teams at the 2018 men’s World Cup, and $38 million to the champion, France. By comparison, FIFA awarded $30 million for the 24 teams at the 2019 women’s World Cup, including $4 million to the U.S. after winning their second straight title.
ESPN provides key context:
The players had previously been seeking $66.7 million in back pay, but the settlement amounts to a significant victory for the players, who have long championed the equal pay fight for women’s sports. The journey came with some significant bumps in the road — at one point, the equal pay portion of the lawsuit was dismissed, forcing the players to appeal — but in the end, the players emerged with a considerable amount of money, even though the settlement amount was less than what the players were asking.
“I’m not a big fan of roller coasters, in real life or figuratively,” [star player Megan] Rapinoe said of the up-and-down process. “I did think we would get to this point, 100%. I did think we would win all along in this. This is a win for us. And this is a win for the for the players for the next generation, for women’s players around the world.”
“U.S. women have won four World Cups since the program’s start in 1985, while the men haven’t reached a semifinal since 1930,” notes the AP.
