All 28 of the players in the current U.S. player pool sued the federation in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, alleging female players earn less than their U.S. Men’s National Team peers despite having the same job responsibilities and superior results.
The suit creates a high-profile pay-equity showdown between members of one of the nation’s most successful sports organizations and their employer.
Members of the women’s team say they have played and won more games, earned more championships and garnered higher television audiences than their male counterparts and deserve equal compensation. The men’s national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, asks for an award to make the plaintiffs and the class whole, as well as to provide damages and other appropriate relief. Players said they aren’t considering a boycott of the World Cup.
“Each of us is extremely proud to wear the United States jersey, and we also take seriously the responsibility that comes with that,” veteran U.S. forward Alex Morgan said. “We believe that fighting for gender equality in sports is a part of that responsibility.”
The lawsuit makes allegations similar to a March 2016 complaint by five U.S. women’s team players to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The women’s team notified the EEOC that it planned to file a lawsuit in federal court, and on Feb. 11 it received permission.
The U.S. women made gains in a 2017 collective-bargaining agreement with the federation but said that deal didn’t go far enough. At that time, the team opted to compromise rather than disrupt its season.
The U.S. Soccer Federation governs amateur and professional soccer in the U.S., including selecting and managing national teams. The lawsuit alleges the federation discriminates by paying the women’s team less than members of the Men’s National Team and by “denying them at least equal playing, training, and travel conditions; equal promotion of their games; equal support and development for their games; and other terms and conditions of employment equal to the MNT.”
For the 2014 World Cup, the federation paid the Men’s National Team performance bonuses totaling nearly $5.4 million for losing in the Round of 16. For the 2015 Women’s World Cup, the federation provided the U.S. women with more than $1.7 million for winning the tournament, according to the lawsuit. Both the men’s and women’s World Cup are held every four years.
In the fiscal year that ended in March 2016, the federation budgeted a combined net loss for the national teams of $429,929, according to the lawsuit. Because of the success of the Women’s National Team, the federation revised its projections to include a $17.7 million profit, the suit alleges.
In response to the women’s players’ demand for equal pay in 2016, a federation representative said that “market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men,” according to the lawsuit. It alleges that the federation “made this statement after it already had conceded that the WNT outperformed the MNT in both revenue and profit the prior year.”
U.S. Soccer Federation president Carlos Cordeiro said, in a recent interview, that the situation with the women’s team had improved since the collective-bargaining agreement deal was made.
“I’m not saying it’s perfect and equal, but it doesn’t have that same biting, very negative slant to it,” Mr. Cordeiro said. “Because the little things we can do, we did immediately. Our women travel the same class of air, the same class of hotels. There’s charters available to them when they need them.”
The U.S. women have won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, more than any women’s team in history. Their victory in the 2015 World Cup final against Japan was the most-watched soccer game of all time in the U.S., with more than 25 million viewers.
The U.S. men’s team hasn’t advanced past the World Cup quarterfinals since finishing third in the first World Cup in 1930.
The Women’s World Cup kicks off in France on June 7. The U.S. women have struggled by their standards recently, finishing second in the SheBelieves Cup after drawing with England and Japan and beating Brazil. But they still are considered a World Cup favorite, going undefeated in 2018 and holding the No. 1 world ranking.
The federation said in response to the 2016 EEOC complaint that the pay differences were due to factors other than gender, such as varying compensation from club teams and a World Cup bonus structure set by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
The 2017 women’s collective-bargaining agreement, which lasts through 2021, included increased pay for participation in national-team duties, the opportunity to win more bonus money, improvements in travel, and federation investments in the National Women’s Soccer League. But it didn’t provide equal pay with the men.
Even though FIFA is doubling the prize money for this summer’s Women’s World Cup, to $30 million from $15 million in 2015, the gap between the women’s and men’s World Cup prize money has widened.
The men’s teams at last summer’s World Cup in Russia shared $400 million in prize money. In Qatar in 2022, that prize pool will increase to $440 million.