On February 22, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) received a $24 million settlement from the United States Soccer Federation, along with a pledge from the federation to equalize pay for men’s and women’s teams, after a six-year fight.
This fight started in March 2016, when five key USWNT players, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo, and Becky Sauerbrunn, filed a federal claim of wage discrimination. The women stated that the U.S Soccer Federation paid them far less than the men’s national team, but the Federation aggressively opposed this statement. In early 2017, the women began to attempt to negotiate with U.S Soccer. They created a deal that included around a 30% salary increase along with match bonuses that could double some of their incomes, but it still did not level their salaries with that of the men’s national team. In March 2019, after coming to the realization that the labor peace agreement did not move the players towards their goal of equal pay, the players withdrew their initial claim and replaced it with a lawsuit against U.S Soccer for gender discrimination in federal court.
In February 2020, prior to the trial, U.S Soccer wanted the players to release a statement announcing that their claims had no merit, which the players didn’t do. They instead announced that they believed they deserved $67 million. In March 2020, U.S Soccer’s lawyers argued that science proved that the USWNT players were inferior to the USMNT. This led to intense backlash, especially as in July of 2019, the USWNT had won their fourth Women’s World Cup, making them the most successful team in international women’s soccer. The United States Men’s National Team hasn’t won a World Cup in the history of the tournament, nor did they qualify for the 2018 Men’s World Cup. The backlash to this legal argument led the Federation’s president to resign.
At the end of the trial in April, the judge dismissed the players’ claims. More than a year and a half later, in November 2021, U.S Soccer and the women’s players reached an agreement that resolved any claims made about unequal working conditions. This part of the process was crucial for the women to complete before they could appeal their previous defeat in court. Finally, in February of 2022, the six-year battle came to a meaningful end, with the U.S Soccer Federation promising to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s national teams (Das).
