After a year-long campaign for gender pay equity, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) has reached an agreement that will allow its players to be paid equally to those of the men’s team.
In May, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) announced two new collective agreements stipulating that men’s and women’s national team players will receive the same salary in all matches and competitions.
“This is a truly historic moment,” USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “These agreements have forever changed the game here in the United States and have the potential to be a game-changer around the world.”
The agreements, which take effect today and run through 2028, include a provision that teams will pool cash payments the USSF receives from FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, to their participation in the World Cup.
US Soccer will also share a portion of its broadcast, partnership and sponsorship revenue with players, which will be split equally between the USWNT and the United States Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) after the USSF will have taken a cut.
Players from both teams will also receive a share of revenue from tickets sold at home matches controlled by US Soccer and a bonus amount for sold-out matches.
“They said equal pay for men and women wasn’t possible, but that didn’t stop us and we kept going and made it happen,” said Walker Zimmerman, a member of the leadership group of the United States National Soccer Team Players’ Association, in a statement. “We hope this will raise awareness of the need for this type of change and inspire FIFA and others around the world to move in the same direction.”
How big was the wage gap?
In 1999, when the USWNT won the World Cup, players asked for a raise after the USSF signed a $120 million deal with Nike, according to The Washington Post. Their request was rejected. However, the players ultimately received a raise of an undisclosed amount after threatening to skip the 2000 Olympics.
In 2015, the Women’s World Cup final was the most-watched soccer match on an American channel. Between 2016 and 2018, women brought in $50.8 million in income, while men brought in $49.9 million, according to THE Wall Street Journal.
Yet the USMNT continued to earn larger World Cup bonuses, even in years when the team failed to advance out of the group stage of the tournament. In 2019, the USWNT received 4 million dollars after winning his second consecutive World Cup championship. The USMNT received nearly $5.4 million just for reaching the round of 16 in 2014.
In 2019, the USWNT filed a lawsuit against the USSF, alleging pay discrimination and unequal working conditions. In February, he received 24 million dollarsprovided that both parties agree on a new collective agreement.
Equal pay shouldn’t require ‘incredible’ efforts
The gender pay gap has long been a problem in workplaces across America.
Since 2015, the wage gap has been slowly decreasing. However, this improvement stalled in 2022: Women earned 82 cents for every dollar men earned when comparing all women to all men, according to pay data and software company Payscale’s. 2022 report on the state of the gender pay gap.
(SHRM members-only resource center page: Salary equity)
Nzinga Shaw, managing director and head of inclusion and diversity at talent firm ZRG Partners in Atlanta, said employers should implement best practices and tools to organically achieve pay equity and create a culture of transparency and fairness in terms of remuneration.
“Compensation is an important topic for everyone,” Shaw said. “Employees must be well informed and leaders must be diligent and thoughtful in their salary decisions.”
Shaw, who previously served as head of human resources for the NFL and was a member of the league’s Diversity Council, applauded the USWNT for its years-long effort to eliminate systemic barriers that prevent equal pay for equal work in football, despite several unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement. agreement with the USSF.
“The team turned tragedy into triumph and highlighted the pay equity issues facing women in football and, more broadly, throughout the workforce, regardless of industry,” she said.
Susan MacKenty Brady, co-author of Arrive and Thrive: 7 Effective Practices for Women Navigating Leadership (McGraw Hill, 2022), said the USWNT’s success should be celebrated, but equal pay should not require the “incredible” effort the team needed to achieve it.
“If you are in a position of power and leadership, I implore you to take a stand to ensure equal pay is the norm in your organization and your industry,” Brady said. “If you are an ally of equity and inclusion and know of visible or invisible disparities, be courageous and stand up for what is fair.”
