Even World Cup Winners Are Not Immune to the Gender Pay Gap Five members of the US women's national soccer team filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
By Nina Zipkin
Last summer, the U.S. women's national soccer team took home its first World Cup win since 1999, a 5-2 match up against Japan that brought in a total of 26.7 million viewers and broke records as the most watched soccer game in U.S. history.
This week, five high profile members of that winning team -- co-captains Carli Lloyd (World Cup MVP) and Becky Sauerbrunn, forward Alex Morgan, midfielder Megan Rapinoe and goalkeeper Hope Solo -- filed a wage discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that the sport's national governing body, U.S. Soccer Federation, pays female players 40 percent of what their male counterparts earn.
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Solo said the men's players "get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships," according to The New York Times.
The filing follows legal action taken by U.S. Soccer last month against the union that represents the women's team around a disagreement regarding its collective bargaining agreement.
As a basis of comparison, for a World Cup victory, the members of the women's team get paid $75,000 each, while the men's team members each get about $335,000, according to the filing. And unfortunately, these accomplished athletes are far from alone in their battle for equal compensation. Nationally, women are paid 79 cents per one dollar that men earn.
Related: New Data Confirms Again That Women Make Less Than Men in the Same Roles
Historic moment. Proud of the strength of this team. #fighting #equalplayequalpay pic.twitter.com/JnAbyL8bm8
— Carli Lloyd (@CarliLloyd) March 31, 2016
We want to hear from you -- sound off on Twitter and Facebook about the U.S. women's soccer team's fight for equal pay.Five players signed the complaint, but the decision to file was whole-heartedly supported by the entire team. #equalplayequalpay #thegals
— Becky Sauerbrunn (@beckysauerbrunn) March 31, 2016
