US women’s national team and federation reach agreement on equal pay

The United States soccer federation and the country’s women’s soccer team reached an agreement on Tuesday (22) on the dispute for equal pay. In the process, which has lasted six years, the Americans demand that their salaries be equalized with those of the men’s team.

The agreement established the payment of US$ 24 million to a group formed by active athletes and others already retired, in addition to the guarantee by US Soccer, the American federation, that the payments will be equalized from the new collective agreement signed between the union of professional players and the entity.

“It was not an easy process to get to that point, certainly,” said US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone, a world champion and two-time Olympic champion as a national team player. “The most important thing is that we are moving forward, and moving forward together.”

The athletes’ unexpected victory was greatly celebrated by one of their leaders, Alex Morgan.

“It’s a monumental victory for us and for the women,” said the 32-year-old forward.

“What we wanted was recognition from US Soccer that there was discrimination, and we received that through the payment agreed in the agreement. We wanted to establish fair and equal treatment in working conditions, and we achieved that in the working conditions agreement. And we intended to move forward with the process of matching wages with the men’s team with US Soccer, and we achieved that too.”

The women’s and men’s football unions have already held joint negotiation sessions with the American federation, but for the agreement to be fulfilled by the entity, the men will likely have to share or give up part of their possible earnings from payments made by FIFA related to to the World Cup, for example.

The men’s World Cup moves significantly more money than the women’s tournament.

In the last edition of the Women’s Cup, in 2019, in France, FIFA distributed US$ 30 million among the 24 participating teams. In the last men’s edition of the competition, in 2018, in Russia, the cake divided by the entity among the 32 teams was US$ 400 million.