It took the US almost 200 years to finally get a law that states that men and women should be paid the same. That law is called the Equal Pay Act and it requires that men and women must be paid the same for equal work. Still, some work places don’t follow the rule and don’t pay both sexes the same. According to CNN, women make around 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. This doesn’t seem like a big deal but when your talking dollars it makes a very big difference. If a man were to make $500,000, a women would actually make $400,000 to that.

This is happening in more than just your normal office places, it’s largely affecting sports as well. It’s happening in golf, soccer, basketball, UFC fighters, cricket and more. The US women’s soccer team are sick of it and are finally fighting for equal pay to their male counterparts.

Photo of the US Women’s Soccer Team by rachael.c.king

Pay Gap

The US women’s soccer team is the most successful soccer team that the US has ever had. Yet still the pay gap between the men and the women’s soccer teams is an astounding amount. A budget report from the US soccer federation shows the large extent of pay difference between the two teams. It’s a problem on the US federations watch and on the FIFA federation. 

Why are men paid more?

One word, revenue. US soccer federation claims that in the past 4 years, the men’s team has brought in 2x more revenue than the women. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, when the US soccer president was asked if the women were deserving of this he stated: “I don’t want to use the word deserve in any of this,” Gulati said. “I’d reverse the question: Do you think revenue should matter at all in determination of compensation in a market economy?”  He is completely ignoring the fact that yes, they are deserving of this. They have played more games, produced more wins, and set a record of views for their USA vs China final in the 2015 world cup. 

The number of fans and people supporting the national teams for their home games has a pretty large gap. According to Sports Illustrated, from the years 2011-2015, the men’s team had an average of 29,781 fans during their home games. While the women only had an average of 16,229 for their home games. These fan numbers are put into consideration when the federation is giving out bonuses. Still, that is no excuse for why the bonus gap between the two teams is so different.

The Fair Play Clause also has come into question recently. This basically states that if the women’s compensation to revenue ratio is less than the men’s compensation to revenue ratio, then a payment will be made to the women players to make the pay equal. According to US soccer, this hasn’t been put into action yet because the women’s ratio is still greater than the men’s. An article from the New York Times contradicts what the federation is saying about the women’s team not being able to activate the Fair Play Clause. The women’s team is expected to bring in more that $17 million in revenue, plus a $5 million surplus, practically doubling what the men are expected to bring in. So if the women’s team are actually bringing in more revenue, then the question remains. Why are men getting paid more?

Equal Play?

In the past 4 years, the women have played 110 games, 88 of those being wins. The men, 76 games and 44 wins, so half of the amount of wins as women. The women are doing better and they are putting in more work. In an interview with New York Times Carli Lloyd (a player from the US women’s team) states,[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “It had everything to do with what’s right and what’s fair, and with upholding a fundamental American concept: equal pay for equal play”[/perfectpullquote] 

And let’s not forget that the last women’s world cup was won by the US team. While during the last men’s world cup, the men didn’t even qualify.

Who’s fighting?

Photo of Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe by Jamie Smed

Some of the best female soccer players in the world, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe are all fighting to get equal pay. Carli Lloyd was given the award of 2016 FIFA player of the year and has won 2 olympic gold medals.  In an interview with the New York Times she says, “We’ve won three World Cups and will try to win our fifth Olympic gold medal this summer in Brazil. When we captured the Women’s World Cup title in Canada in July, we drew the highest American television rating for soccer in history.” They’re drawing in views and breaking records but are still shortchanged.   

These 5 women have been fighting for this for years but yet, very little results are coming out of it. Eventually, they went to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision with their problem. US soccer has upped their pay a little bit but still, it remains unequal. The women players now get about $54,000 per player, per year and additional bonus such as making it to the world cup and advancing far in it.

Conclusion 

In an article with Time, the FIFA secretary general claims “We are still another 23 World Cups before potentially women should receive the same amount as men.” Even if the US federation does agree to give the women equal pay to the men, then there will still be the FIFA federation to deal with. The 5 women fighting for equal pay for equal play have made strides in getting higher pay, but there is still an extremely long way to go to achieving their goal. 

Featured image by Pictures of Money