U.S. Senators Demand Female Soccer Players Receive Equal Pay

Thirty-one United States senators are demanding that the U.S. Soccer Federation pay players on the Women’s National Team the same as their male counterparts, who are paid significantly more for equal work.

U.S. Senators Demand Female Soccer Players Receive Equal Pay

The U.S. senators, which include Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats representing California, wrote a letter to U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati on Wednesday, imploring him to ensure that members of the U.S. Women’s National Team receive pay equal to members of the men’s team.

In March, five players of the USWNT filed a federal equal-pay complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which they claimed to be paid substantially less than their under-performing male counterparts.

The senators stated they were shocked by the massive gender pay gap existing in America between top-tier professional male and female soccer players. The same heated issue has also been debated in other professional sports, like tennis.

The senators quoted the EEOC complaint, which states that “a 20-game winning top tier [Women’s National Team] player would earn 38% of the compensation of a similarly situated [Men’s National Team] player.” The overall average ratio of the men’s earnings to the women’s earnings is 4 to 1.

According to the EEOC complaint filed by Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Rebecca Sauerbrunn and Alex Morgan, a player on the Men’s National Team receives a bonus for each victory ranging from $6,250 to $17,625, while a player on the WNT is awarded only a $1,350 bonus for each win. For each loss, the men’s players still earn roughly $5,000, while the women’s team earns nothing. The women are also constantly forced to play on astroturf, even at the World Cup, while the men’s team never plays on turf.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein took to Twitter Wednesday to highlight players’ documentation of  “disparities in pay, including salaries, win bonuses and daily travel allowances” between male and female soccer players on the U.S. team.

The WNT won its third World Cup title in July 2015 after defeating Japan. The team is also ranked first in the world, and has won four Olympic gold medals. The Men’s team only reached the round of 16 of the last two World Cups, and are ranked 30th in the word. The 2015 Women’s World Cup Final also broke the record for the most-watched soccer game in US history, between men or women. The women also claimed in the complaint that they earned $2,000,000 for their World Cup win last year, while the men earned $9,000,000 for losing in the Round of 16.

And yet, despite all these accomplishments, the female players still receive much lower compensation than the US male players.

According to the U.S. Soccer Federation’s most recent annual report, the federation had projected a combined net loss for the national teams of $429,929 for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2016, but the federation ended the fiscal year projecting a $17.7 million net profit. The complaint alleges that profit is “thanks almost exclusively to the success of the WNT.” This seems accurate, given that according to the five female players who filed the complaint, the men’s team lost $2 million in profits for the federation just last year.

In fiscal year 2017, the women’s team is projected to net about $5 million in profit while the men’s team is projected to have a net loss of about $1 million, according to the complaint.

Both male and female players are required to play at least 20 games per year. A female player could earn as little as $72,000 a year, whereas a male player could earn a minimum of $100,000 a year for the same number of games played.

However if a female player won all 20 games she couldn’t make more than $99,000 a year, yet a similarly situated male player can make about $263,000 in a year. The female player would receive just 38 percent the compensation that a male player who won the same numbers of games would receive.

In their letter to Gulati, the U.S. Senators cited the Equal Pay Act, which requires employers to pay men and women equally for doing the same work.

PHOTO: VANCOUVER, BC – JULY 05: Christie Rampone #3 of the United States of America holds the World Cup Trophy after their 5-2 win over Japan in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 Final at BC Place Stadium on July 5, 2015 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)