The Four-Decade Equal Pay Battle the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Endured and Won
As we wait to see if the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team will clinch its fifth World Cup victory, there is another battle they’ve waged — to receive equal pay. Four decades of activism and speaking out seem to be making a difference, but there’s still a way to go.
For those who remember watching the 2019 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Women’s World Cup in France, the energy surrounding the event was palpable.
As the defending champions, the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) set the tone immediately with a 13-0 win against Thailand in their first game of the event, setting records for the widest margin of victory and the most goals in a match in the event’s history. Even in the face of criticism for running up the score, the women’s team powered through the event, going up against the best squads in the world on the global stage.
When the American women’s team won 2-0 against the Netherlands in the final, the cheers in both the stadium in France and where I was watching in my living room with my family, rapt before the TV, were deafening.
Perhaps loudest were the cries of, “Equal pay!”
With a new star on their jerseys after facing off against the likes of France and England, a consecutive World Cup win, and Megan Rapinoe taking home the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot, the women’s team returned home to a ticker-tape parade and a gauntlet of different proportions thrown down before them: their lawsuit with the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) regarding equal pay compared to the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT). Filed only four months prior to the World Cup, the women returned renewed, revitalized, and armed with yet another arrow in their quiver to argue their case.
Said lawsuit was settled six years later for $24 million.
Some Background
Despite its prominent placement in headlines recently, the women team’s equal pay dispute is convoluted, especially for anybody not closely following the topic. You might feel that this has been a topic that has gone on for forever — and you would be right. Since the women’s national team’s inception in 1985, equality for women’s soccer in the U.S. has always had a contentious undercurrent. The landmark equal pay dispute and its 2022 settlement is the most recent flux in the U.S. Women’s Team’s history.
In all the hubbub that revolved around the dispute from its inception to its culmination — two World Cup wins, legal turmoil, and political intrigue to name a few — it’s easy to lose track of the specifics of the USWNT’s equal pay lawsuit. “Equal pay” can sound pretty vague, especially if you don’t know how the men’s and women’s teams are paid for their participation on the national teams.
Photo courtesy of USWNT
Essentially, it all comes down to each team’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and what rates and provisions they negotiated with the United States Soccer Federation. The U.S. men’s team and the women’s team never had identical CBAs. There were some differences, such as the fact that some players for the women’s team were salaried and earned a base rate for their work and that the women’s CBA included health insurance. The men’s team has always been on a pay-to-play basis. Notably, the women took control of their licensing in 2017 and handled it themselves, unlike the men, who were happy to let U.S. Soccer manage it.
The two CBAs are riddled with differing minutiae. The true disparity comes to light when the rates the teams are paid for playing games are revealed. Specifically, the rates for friendly games — games that aren’t part of tournaments and typically non-competitive — differed between the men’s team and the women’s team. Depending on the year and what tournaments are on each team’s schedules, friendlies can typically comprise a large portion of games played for both the men and the women. Thus, the bonuses players earn from playing in them greatly affect their total earnings despite not being part of the bigger tournaments.
Here’s the method behind the madness. U.S. Soccer divides the men’s and the women’s opponents into three skill tiers: top, middle, and bottom. The bonuses the players receive depend firstly on the tier of the team’s opponent, and then if the team either won, lost, or tied. Each team also gets a little extra if they beat their respective rival teams: Canada for the women, and Mexico for the men.
Prior to the settlement, if the women were to win against a top-tier opponent, each player would take home a bonus of $8,500; players on the men’s team would take home $17,625, or more than double, for the same accomplishment. When the men tie with a bottom-tier opponent, they earn $5,300. In the same situation, the women earn nothing.
Arguments can be traded back and forth and the finer details can be picked apart to kingdom come — the men can’t earn any potential Olympics bonuses like the women do, but the women can’t earn any bonuses for the CONCACAF Gold Cup (a tournament held every two years for countries in the Caribbean and North and Central America) unless those games count for World Cup qualification — but the disparity grows more undeniable when World Cup bonuses are considered.
Even for qualifying for the World Cup, the men’s team is given a bigger bonus by U.S. Soccer. The men’s team earns a bonus of $2.5 million; for the same feat, the women get $750,000. Under this system, the men’s team could make an additional $4.5 million for just reaching round 16 of their World Cup. For reference, round 16 is the first round of knock-out games for the Men’s World Cup. The winner of round 16 goes on to the quarter-finals. Had they advanced, the men would have stood to earn more bonuses on top of what they had already earned.
If the men’s team finishes the World Cup in third place, they earn another bonus of $1.25 million from U.S. Soccer. For the same feat, the women earn $575,000 — all of this to divvy up among the teammates.
If the men’s team wins the World Cup, the CBA it holds with U.S. Soccer promises them a bonus of $9.375 million. Granted, the odds of the U.S. men’s team reaching the World Cup’s final round — and winning it — are very slim. It is highly unlikely that U.S. Soccer would have ever had to actually fork out that amount of cash. However, that bonus is still promised in the men’s CBA.
The women earned a bonus of $2.5 million for winning the World Cup — which they have done four times now.
These bonuses are under U.S. Soccer. FIFA is a different beast entirely, especially when it comes to prize money. For the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar, FIFA allocated $440 million in total prize money available for the various teams that participated. Victorious Argentina took home $42 million after a tense final against France, Messi versus Mbappé. The U.S. Women’s Team earned $13 million from FIFA in 2022 after losing to the Netherlands in round 16.
For comparison, $110 million has been allocated to this year’s Women’s World Cup. The winners will take home $10.5 million.
When questions of viewership and sponsorship money are broached or offered up as a means of explanation for the difference in prize money, it’s hard to get a straight answer. When the U.S. women’s lawsuit was active, these questions abounded. In previous years, FIFA sold the rights to the Women’s World Cup along with the Men’s World Cup; this year’s World Cup is the first where the Women’s and Men’s World Cups are separated.
Though the rationale behind the prize money disparity could be due, in part, to things like viewership or sponsorship money, taking an apples-to-apples approach to analyzing the prize money affirms the fact that the men and women are doing the same work. They’re all professional athletes playing soccer on the world stage and representing their respective countries. Such an egregious gap, intentional or not, communicates the idea that women’s soccer is somehow unworthy or less than — which is a dangerous sentiment for other nations’ fledgling women’s soccer programs and young female athletes across the globe.
With the crux of the lawsuit outlined, let’s dive deeper into the actual history of the lawsuit in order to fully grasp the importance of the U. S. Women’s Team’s victory — and just how uphill the climb was.
The Long and Short of the Legal History
The dispute began in 2016 when five USWNT players — Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, and Becky Sauerbrunn — filed a complaint concerning wage discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). There, the complaint waited. And waited. It waited in the chaos of a changing presidential administration and was bogged down by other governmental bureaucracy until 2019.
In March 2019, USWNT players sued the USSF on the grounds of gender discrimination after the EEOC granted them the right to sue. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup was four months away, and the USWNT went into the tournament defending their argument and their 2015 title and emerged the victors, making it their third World Cup win.
In 2020, a federal judge dismissed the equal pay portion of the USWNT’s case. Though other elements of the USWNT’s case were allowed to proceed, this was a huge blow to the suit. Even in the face of adversity, the USWNT continued the fight. The team appealed the dismissal in 2021.
Ultimately, this tenacity is what led to the settlement in 2022. The USWNT was awarded $24 million: $22 million allocated to the players involved in the lawsuit and $2 million dedicated to supporting the post-career aspirations of USWNT players and charitable efforts aimed toward women’s soccer. That $2 million goes into an account where each player can apply for a grant of up to $50,000 in funding to assist any post-career plans or projects.
Legal Timeline
2016: Five USWNT players (Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, and Becky Sauerbrunn) file a complaint with the EEOC, alleging discrimination based on gender concerning their pay.
2019: The EOCC grants the USWNT the right to sue, and the team files a lawsuit against the USSF, demanding equal pay to the USMNT, four months out from the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France. The United States emerges victorious 2-0 against the Netherlands.
2020: A federal judge dismisses portions of the USWNT’s lawsuit, dealing a crippling blow to their pursuit of equal pay.
2021: The USWNT appeals the dismissal.
2022: The USWNT and the USSF reach a settlement of $24 million — $22 million goes to the players and the remainder goes toward supporting women’s sports and establishing a fund to support USWNT players in their professional pursuits.
The Good
In addition to the $22 million payout and the $2 million investment into furthering women’s soccer and supporting the U.S. Women’s Team players, the settlement was contingent on an adequate renegotiation of both the women’s and the men’s CBAs. At the time, the men’s CBA was long overdue to be renewed, and the women’s had expired during the lawsuit’s deliberation. Everything that the USWNT and its supporters — which include members of the U.S. Men’s Team — had worked toward could have crumbled if no agreement could be reached in the teams’ CBAs.
Thankfully, negotiations did not break down in the months after the settlement. Both teams now operate under new CBAs. Beyond the assumption that the reworked CBAs fulfill the complaints the USWNT had in their lawsuit, it’s important to note the specific parts that ensure a more level playing (and paying) field and how they do so.
Key Parts of the Renegotiated CBAs
The USMNT and the USWNT have agreed to pool their FIFA World Cup winnings together to reduce disparity.
Friendly games’ bonuses are equalized between the USMNT and the USWNT.
The USSF will share a portion of its broadcast, partner, and sponsorship revenue with the USMNT and USWNT, who will then split it equally.
Both CBAs will last through 2028 (two World Cup and Olympics cycles), and through them the United States became the first country in the world to equalize the FIFA World Cup prize money for its two teams. Additionally, no female players are salaried anymore. The travel budgets are equal, and the men’s team has gained some benefits, such as childcare and parental leave.
FIFA is also working toward pay equality. Though the $110 million in prize money allocated for the Women’s 2023 World Cup is diminutive compared to the 2022 Men’s World Cup’s $440 million, this is a huge increase from previous years. In 2019, FIFA allocated only $40 million in prize money for the entire Women’s World Cup in France, and the USWNT took home $4 million for its victory from FIFA.
Along with the increase in prize money, FIFA recently pledged that the prize money for the men and the women will be equal by 2027. Whether that will pan out is hard to say, so the pressure shouldn’t be taken off FIFA just yet.
The Unsatisfactory
Yes, $24 million is a lot of money. However, when divided among the 28 players involved in the case, it diminishes rather rapidly. Subtract the $2 million investment, and you’re left with $22 million. Divide that by 28: By my rigorous iPhone calculator math, that’s around $785,000 per player before taxes, legal fees, and the like are accounted for.
When compared to the initial figure the USWNT alleged they were owed in back pay — $67 million, which, if divided by 28, would result in roughly $2.3 million per team member — the $24 million seems a tad paltry.
For veteran players, sponsorship dollars can fill the gaps left over. Stars like Rapinoe and Morgan have no shortage of sponsors or collaborations. But those who have not yet built up their brands to the same heights — namely, the younger, newer, and lesser-known players — are the ones who may be feeling this difference in back pay the hardest. Or, at least, their wallets may be.
Additionally, some questions can be raised concerning the efficacy of the lawsuit in ensuring a more widespread pay improvement for female athletes.
“It helped address one team within the landscape. Now, this is a very influential team with high-profile players, but it didn’t address the low pay happening at the NWSL pro player level or the funding issues with other pathways to get to the USWNT,” says Kassie Gray, founder, and CEO of Female Footballers, a nonprofit focused on empowering female-identifying and nonbinary soccer players’ by preparing them for the mental side of the sport. “I believe that there needs to be more investment on all of these fronts or then you’re left with roughly only 24 women benefiting from an increase in pay.”
Where FIFA is concerned, the amount of prize money up for grabs for men and women is not the only disparity. The U.S. Women’s Team is the exception, not the standard when it comes to being compensated for their work.
“One of the main issues that female football players face is that the money they earn from FIFA never reaches them. Nearly a third of all players reported that they are not being paid by their federations.”
– Susie Petruccelli, former captain of the Harvard women’s soccer team, gender equality advocate, and author of Raised a Warrior.
“The federations don’t distribute the winnings or investment to the players,” she continues. “This is the first Women’s World Cup in which each player will directly receive $30K from FIFA for participating in the tournament, but federations like the English Football Association have yet to agree with their players to distribute any bonus money earned.”
“And though $30,000 is more than most of these athletes have ever earned as professional soccer players, it isn’t enough for them to support themselves as full-time footballers. So many women’s national teams are in disputes with their federations right now: Canada, Spain, Colombia, Zambia, France (just resolved), Haiti, Jamaica, South Africa, England, Nigeria, to name a few. There are places like Haiti and Colombia where the female players are being physically and sexually threatened or assaulted in addition to having their wages stolen. There is so much work to do,” Petruccelli says.
When women are not properly compensated for being full-time athletes, they stop being full-time athletes. Without the means to dedicate themselves fully to their sport, women’s sports stagnate.
Another discrepancy is the preparation time the hosts for each FIFA World Cup get, demonstrating a difference in organization. According to Petruccelli, “Australia and New Zealand only had a couple of years to prepare and build their event while Qatar had 12 years to plan and prepare.”
Hosting any World Cup is no small feat. It’s a matter of national pride, and everybody's eyes are on the host nation. It’s the perfect opportunity to show off, and the host nation wants to put its best foot forward. Typically, this may involve an overhaul of professional soccer facilities like stadiums or training grounds. The multiple scandals aside, Qatar invested a record estimated $220 billion in infrastructure in anticipation of the World Cup over the 12 years it waited for its turn to host.
The Bottom Line
The social impact of the U. S. Women’s Team’s victory is undeniable; the team’s presence on the current American zeitgeist is so strong as to call it nearly tangible. Rapinoe’s likeness is one of the most well-known, but figures like Alex Morgan and Alyssa Naeher captivate audiences with their personalities and skills. Past players, such as Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd, still inspire young female athletes with their accomplishments.
However, now is not the time to rest on one’s laurels. Even with this trophy held aloft, there is still progress left to make. The women’s team gained unprecedented notoriety after their 2015 World Cup 5-2 victory over Japan, breaking multiple world records in one game, yet we can’t ignore the work of the women who came before the 2015 squad.
“First, it’s important to honor the women who fought for years from other generations. For example, Michelle Akers and the women of the first USWNT in the early 1980s who dealt with arguably the most inequalities,” says Gray.
It’s always been an uphill climb for women’s sports. Soccer is hardly the exception. When we think of women’s sports in the United States, Title IX and its impact cannot be ignored. It exemplifies the principle that meaningful change should be upheld and affirmed through stringent policy. It also shows that when women’s sports are deliberately affirmed and supported, they flourish.
The U. S. Women’s Team’s dominance on the global stage has been fostered by policies at home, and through the team’s hard-fought lawsuit and settlement, these women affirmed not only their dignity as professional athletes but also added to the aspirations of other women and young girls.
“This win isn’t just a win for the players on that team, but a boost and a win for female athletes of all ages. It legitimizes our stance and our power within sport,” explains Gray. “It brings the deserved viewership and attention our sport needs and it helps leverage our value as women and athletes. As a mom to a daughter, it is also essential that we continue to do the work for the future generations of women and athletes.”
Forces of nature like Rapinoe have left an indelible mark on the U. S. Women's Team’s history. With Rapinoe expected to retire after this season, it may feel like an era is coming to a close as our screens will no longer be graced by her iconic presence. But as the women’s team prepares to take Australia and New Zealand by storm with tonight’s first game against Vietnam, it feels more like a continuation of momentum.
The ball started rolling in the 1980s, and its roll has only gotten stronger, no matter the many hurdles it’s had to overcome — or plow through.
Despite competing in a different sport, the energy from the USWNT’s settlement is undoubtedly infectious. Professional skydiver Melanie Curtis, who recently participated in a 13-woman aerial display to kick off an Angel City FC vs. San Diego Wave FC match, says it best: “Sometimes this scale of change feels like a giant oil tanker, so slow to move some days you wonder if anything you're doing is making a difference. Seeing the success of the USWNT securing this historic judgment for equal pay is the fuel we need to keep going and keep believing too.”
“Not being immersed directly in soccer, I can’t speak to any inside impacts, but what I can speak to is the impact I see in the broader conversation about equal pay and women’s equality,” Curtis says. “There is momentum and fire that is palpable. A win as huge as this helps women everywhere start to believe that positive progress is possible across all sports and industries.”
“When talking about women’s sports, it is essential that we continue to change the narrative around the capability of women, and how fun it is to watch us!”
Take Curtis’ advice and tune in to the 2023 World Cup — and keep an eye out for the U. S. Women's Team as these fierce women seek to defend their title and aim for a fifth star to add to their jerseys.
