Five members of reigning Women’s World Cup winners the US said on Thursday they had filed a complaint against the US Soccer Federation alleging wage discrimination, insisting they should be paid the same as their male counterparts.
Barely four months before the US women are set to try and win a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, the players are taking a major stand.
“I think that we’ve proven our worth over the years. Just coming off of a World Cup win, the pay disparity between the men and women is just too large, and we want to continue to fight,” World Cup Most Valuable Player Carli Lloyd said in an interview on NBC’s Today show.
Photo: AP
Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Rebecca Sauerbrunn, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan filed the complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is to investigate, issue its findings and seek relief if warranted.
“Five players signed the complaint, but the decision to file was whole-heartedly supported by the entire team,” Sauerbrunn tweeted.
The US won last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada, defeating Japan 5-2 in the final in Vancouver, while the US men lost in the round-of-16 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
The US women earned just US$2 million in prize money, which the federation distributed to the women and the organization, while the losing men’s team picked up US$9 million.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” goalkeeper Solo said. “We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships and the US men’s national team get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”
Germany, the winners of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, were paid US$35 million in prize money.
“We believe now the time is right because we believe it’s a responsibility for women’s sports, specifically women’s soccer, to really do whatever it takes for equal pay and equal rights, and to be treated with respect,” Solo said in the interview on the Today show.
Morgan, in an Instagram posting, said that beyond money, the women wanted greater respect, citing the quality of pitches as an issue. A match in December last year in Hawaii against Trinidad and Tobago was called off due to a poor pitch.
“This is not only about equal pay — we get paid less than half of our male counterparts — but also equal treatment,” Morgan wrote. “We deserve to play in top-notch, grass-only facilities like the US men’s national team, not dangerous turf fields. We want to have decent travel accommodations.”
“We have dedicated our lives to this sport and our country, and we love soccer and our fans. We think it’s time for employers to truly address the inequality and do not only what is fair, but what is right,” she wrote. “We decided to do this for all of the little girls across the country and around the world, who deserve to have a voice and if we don’t leverage the voice we have, we are letting them down.”
US Soccer said in a statement it was “disappointed” by the move.
“While we have not seen this complaint and can’t comment on the specifics of it, we are disappointed about this action,” the federation said. “We have been a world leader in women’s soccer and are proud of the commitment we have made to building the women’s game in the United States over the past 30 years.”
US Soccer said it subsidizes the National Women’s Soccer League, a 10-team competition in which US national team players compete for club teams. Several prior attempts at a US women’s league failed.
“As part of this, women’s national team players are paid full-time salaries and other compensation,” a US Soccer statement said.
The players’ union disputes its collective bargaining agreement with US Soccer, claiming the deal can be terminated at any time, while the federation says the contract remains in force until the end of the year.
“It has become clear that the federation has no intention of providing us equal pay for equal work,” Rapinoe said.
“We had to take our fight for equity and equality to another battlefield,” Sauerbrunn added.
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