A six-year fight over equal pay that had pitted key members of the World Cup-winning United States women's soccer team against their sport's national governing body ended on Tuesday morning with a settlement that included a multimillion-dollar payment to the players.
The athletes will receive $24 million in payments from the U.S. Soccer federation under the terms of the agreement. The majority of that figure is back pay, a tacit admission that compensation for the men and women had been different for years.
At least for the players, the U.S. Soccer pledge to equalize pay between the men and women is noteworthy. If the federation closes the gap, it will cause millions of dollars to be funneled to a new generation of women's players.
There is a new contract between the U.S. Soccer and the players union. The players filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in 2019.
Cindy Parlow Cone said in a telephone interview that it was not an easy process to get to this point.
The settlement is an expensive end to a yearslong legal fight that had battered its reputation, damaged its ties with sponsors and soured its relationship with some of its most popular stars, including Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd. A federal judge in 2020 dismissed the equal pay arguments of the women's team, stripping them of nearly all of their legal leverage.
The settlement represents an unexpected victory for the players because they were able to get an eight-figure settlement and a commitment from the federation to implement the reforms the judge had rejected.
Morgan said that the settlement was a monumental win for them and for women.
She said that they received back pay in the settlement because they acknowledged discrimination from U.S. Soccer. Through the working conditions settlement, we were able to have fair and equal treatment in working conditions. We achieved equal pay for us and the men's team through U.S. Soccer.
The women's players agreed to release the federation from all remaining claims in the team's gender discrimination lawsuit in exchange for thePayout and U.S. Soccer pledge to address equal pay in future contracts with its two marquee teams.
The process could take a long time. The men's and women's teams have held joint negotiating sessions with the U.S. Soccer federation, but the federation is seeking a single collective bargaining agreement that covers both national teams. The equal pay divide is caused by the larger payments for the men's World Cup than the women's tournament.
Cone, a former member of the women's team, said in September that the federation would not sign new collective bargaining agreements with teams that did not equalize World Cup prize money.
It may seem like we are on opposite sides, but we are on the same team. How do we get there?
The players have been fighting for equality in women's sports for a long time, and their battle with U.S. Soccer has thrust them to the forefront of a broader fight. Hockey gold medals, Canadian soccer pros, W.N.B.A. players, and even athletes in other sports reached out to the United States players and their union for guidance.
Rapinoe said that it is their responsibility, not only for our team and future U.S. players, but for players around the world.
Many of those players and teams succeeded in winning major gains, even as the U.S. players struggle to make ends meet.
Five star players filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing U.S. Soccer of wage discrimination. The women, who were part of the team that won the World Cup and Olympic gold medal, claimed that they were paid less than the men. Morgan, Rapinoe, Lloyd, Hope, and Sauerbrunn said they were being shortchanged on bonuses, appearance fees, and even meal money while they were in training camps.
The numbers speak for themselves, though the U.S. Soccer immediately disputed them. Men's players get paid more to show up than we do to win a major championship, according to Solo.
Soccer fans took sides in the fight. The federation briefly argued that the men brought in more money and drew higher television ratings, and thus deserved higher pay, but it soon abandoned the stance amid public backlash, player fury and a closer reading of equal pay law.
The sides were already talking to the media and in court. The federation won a ruling that blocked players from boycotting the 2016 Olympics while they pressed for new contracts, but only after an embarrassing gaffe in which one of its court filings failed to redact the home addresses and personal email accounts of about two dozen top players.
Later depositions produced uncomfortable exchanges that the public relations-savvy women's players weaponized on social media and in slogans they sold on T-shirts. The players would not forgive the statements.
In March 2020, months after the women's team won its second straight World Cup, U.S. Soccer argued in a court filing that playing for the men's team required more.
Rapinoe said that it was disappointing to see that argument used against them.
Since April 2020, when the judge in the women's lawsuit dismissed the argument that they were systematically underpaid, a settlement has seemed the most likely way out for the sides.
The women's team became victims of its own success. The women chose the worst time to line up a few years of their salaries against a few years of the men's, because they were at the peak of their powers as World Cup winners.
The men were ineligible for millions of dollars in performance bonuses because they failed to qualify for the World Cup.
The women vowed to appeal the judge's ruling and a deal over working conditions signaled compromise was still possible. Cone, a former women's national team player, was still hopeful that a larger deal could put the fight behind the U.S. Soccer team.
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