This week, members of the U.S. women’s national team settled with the U.S. Soccer Federation for $24 million – $22 million of which will be paid to the players. Although this is a victory for women athletes and equal pay advocates in a hard-fought battle, the amount falls far short of a payment commensurate with what the players would have earned under their male colleagues’ pay structure. 

According to the Opening Brief of the USWNT, if the Federation had paid the women at the same rate as the men, the women would have made an additional $64 million over the five-year period at issue in this case. The Federation agreed to pay only about 34% of that in settlement. 

The legal challenges and the Federation’s arguments in court further demonstrate that the fight for pay equity is far from over. For example, both the men’s and the women’s teams receive appearance fees for games and performance bonuses for winning. During the relevant time period, USWNT brought in $94 million whereas the USMNT brought in $72 million. Still, the fees paid to the USWNT were consistently lower than those paid to the men’s team, “When the women won the 2015 World Cup, the Federation paid the team $1.725 million in bonuses; when the men lost in the second round of the 2014 World Cup, the Federation paid that team $5.375 million in bonuses” (Alex Morgan et al., v. U.S. Soccer Federation, case no. 21-55356, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Doc. No. 17).

The Federation acknowledged that the women were paid less than the men, but expressly argued they did not deserve equal pay. The District Court dismissed the USWNT’s case on grounds that the women earned more money than the men overall, because they were the more successful team. In other words, the District Court held that “pay is equal if a woman can obtain the same amount of money as a man by working more and performing better.” This is contrary to the law. The Equal Pay Act requires an employer to pay women and men doing equal work an equal “rate” of pay. 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1). 

We should celebrate this victory for the USWNT while recognizing that the fight for pay equity is ongoing.