Five notable players on the reigning World Cup winning U.S. Women's National Team have gone ahead and filed a federal complaint for the entire crew that alleges wage discrimination on the part of U.S. Soccer. The complaint reasons that they've been unfairly paid in comparison to their males peers despite the fact that they're doing better and pulling in more money.
Those five players (Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo) are also calling for an investigation into U.S. Soccer. Hope Solo summed up, pretty bluntly, what their grievances are by saying "We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the U.S.M.N.T. get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”
There are a number of stats that seem to support that quote including the fact that the women made only $2 million last year for winning the World Cup, but the men banked $9 million in 2014 for going 1-2-1 in theirs. Also, on a more annual basis, the women would earn $99,000 for going 20-0 in friendlies (20 being the minimum amount of friendlies required each year) while the men would make $100,000 for going 0-20.
Not only are the women contending that they're paid less than half of what their male counterparts are, but also that they get far crappier bonuses. Here's a breakdown of what they were cheated on, from appearance fees, to rewards, to their per diems (a daily allowance):
Today's filing is not the first blow in the legal fight between the Women's Team and U.S. Soccer. Previously the squad has complained about playing conditions, travel arrangements, hotels, pay, etc. Last year a match in Hawaii was called off because the players wouldn't compete on the shoddy artificial turf a day after Rapinoe shredded her ACL on it.
This dispute is almost guaranteed to still be ongoing when the team takes the field at the Rio Olympic Games in August. If they are successful in their argument they could receive millions of bucks in back pay.
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[via The New York Times, Scribd, Deadspin]
