A California federal district court judge has given final approval to a $24 million deal that settles a pay equity class action between the U.S. women’s national soccer team and the U.S. Soccer Federation Inc. The judge had preliminarily approved the settlement in August. The court still will consider whether the $6.6 million in attorney’s fees for the team’s lawyers is excessive.
The women’s soccer team’s quest for equal pay began in 2016 when several players filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against the U.S. Soccer Federation. They alleged wage discrimination and unequal working conditions, based on comparing the compensation and working conditions provided to the men’s and women’s national soccer teams.
This pay equity suit is believed to be the first case in which female American athletes successfully sued their employer for gender discrimination. In addition to the groundbreaking settlement, the U.S. Soccer Federation has committed to compensating men and women players equally for tournaments, including the World Cup. One reason for the lawsuit’s overwhelming success may be the women’s team’s unparalleled athletic achievement compared with the men’s team. While the U.S. women’s team has won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, the U.S. men’s team has never won a World Cup – or even come close since a third-place finish in 1930 – and failed to qualify for three Olympics in a row. Nonetheless, while the women’s team received almost $2 million in bonuses after winning the World Cup in 2015, the men’s team received more than $5 million after being eliminated from their tournament in the same year.
Likewise, the U.S. women’s team has had extraordinarily high television ratings, such as the 2019 Women’s World Cup, which was the most-watched soccer match in English (men’s or women’s) U.S. history. The airing reached 1.2 billion views worldwide. The women’s 2019 home kit also became the highest-selling soccer jersey in the U.S. among men’s or women’s soccer teams. Although the women’s team generated $20 million in revenue in 2015, the female team members received pay that was four times less than that of the players on the men’s national team.
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