U.S. Soccer Federation settle Equal Pay lawsuit
After a long fight, the U.S. Women’s National Team will (USWNT) will now receive equal payment (Photo Credit: USWNT)
GOALLLLLLLL! Now that Women’s History is here, the U.S Women’s National Soccer Team makes their own score in the history books:on February 22nd, a $24 million dollar settlement was reached between the USWNT and the U.S. Soccer Federation. This followed the filing of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint, a lawsuit over unequal pay with men’s team players. The lawsuit was filed back in March of 2019 by 25 players, including Rapione, Alex Morgan, Becky Sauerbrunn, Hope Solo, and Carli Lloyd (Solo and Lloyd have now retired), all experienced players in the sport.
It cited years of ongoing institutionalized gender discrimination against the players in their compensation and working conditions.
According to the settled terms, U.S. Soccer will pay men and women an equal rate in the future in all non-competitive games (friendlies) and tournaments, including the World Cup.
“We are really in the midst of an incredible turning point in women’s sport. If you’re not paying attention to this right now and what’s happening in women’s sport, you’re sleeping on the whole thing.”
Though this has been a problem for years, the U.S. Soccer Federation is only making changes now. According to NBC, FIFA awards $400 million in prize money for the 32 teams at the 2018’ś men’s World Cup, and $38 million for France who was the champion. On the contrary, for the women’s cup, FIFA awarded $30 million to the 24 teams and $4 million to the U.S. team who won the cup.
Settlement terms state that the U.S. Soccer will pay $22 million to the players in the case and an additional $2 million into a separate account to benefit USWNT players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women’s and girls’ soccer (which calculates up to $50,000 for each player).
Captain of USWNT, Megan Rapinoe spoke with NBC the next day on this major milestone. “For us, this is just a huge win in ensuring that we not only right the wrongs of the past, but set the next generation up for something we only dreamed of”.
