The USA women’s soccer team will appeal a district court decision which was handed out last week . The case which their claims for equal pay.
The court through out the case in which the players had claimed they were underpaid in comparison to male footballers. Gary Klausner, District Court judge deemed that the players were paid more on a per game and a cumulative basis. The judge said on his decision, “”This approach — merely comparing what each team would have made under the other team’s CBA — is untenable in this case because it ignores the reality that the MNT and WNT bargained for different agreements which reflect different preferences, and that the WNT explicitly rejected the terms they now seek to retroactively impose on themselves,”. This evidence is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact for trial.” This has now led to the women’s World Cup Champions to proceed higher up the ladder.
Megan Rapinoe, who is a star in terms of women’s football in America said, “You can look at the total compensation and say, ‘Oh, the women’s team made a little bit more.’ In that time that we made just a little bit more, we’ve won two World Cups and we’ve won just about every single game that we’ve played in. So the rate of pay is just so different. And it’s just so frustrating. To be honest, I think so many women go through this.”
Molly Levinson, a spokesperson on behalf of the players stated, “Equal pay means paying women players the same rate for winning a game as men get paid,”. Furthermore, she said, “The argument that women are paid enough if they make close to the same amount as men while winning more than twice as often is not equal pay”. The men’s football team also issued a statement in support of their female counterparts, “For a year and a half the USMNT players have made proposals to the Federation that would achieve equal pay for the USMNT and USWNT players. We understand the WNT players plan to appeal last week’s decision and we support them.”
RTE Sport report that the players were seeking 66 million dollars in damages under the Equal Pay Act. Women’s pay has always risen questions in regards to the game. Ada Hederberg is currently the highest female paid soccer player in the world with an annual salary of around 340,000.a year In comparison Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is the highest paid male player with 100 million euros . He takes home 71 million after tax and earns over 20 million in endorsements.
Video credit to ESPN.
