One of the most prominent American female football players said she considers this week’s $24m pay discrimination settlement between the US Women’s National Team and the US Soccer Federation to be a “heartbreaking and infuriating” failure.
On Tuesday, the USWMNT and USSF settled a long-running lawsuit accusing the federation of failing to pay the team, the most winning national outfit in women’s soccer globally, as much as America’s often hapless men’s team, violating the Equal Pay Act.
But the settlement is contingent on the USSF and the Stars and Stripes squad working out a new collective bargaining agreement, which former US goalkeeper Hope Solo, who won two Olympic golds and a World Cup with the team, says falls well short of what US women are owed.
"Read the fine print. ‘Contingent upon the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement,’" Ms Solo wrote in a post on her Instagram. "It doesn’t exist yet and is not guaranteed.”
"If the players had ever been successful in negotiating an equal CBA, there would’ve been no reason to sue the federation in the first place,” she added. "This settlement is not a ‘huge win.’ It’s heartbreaking and infuriating.”
Though well short of the more than $66m the USWNT was seeking in the suit, the settlement will pay each national team player a lump sum, as well as guarantee an equal rate of pay for the men’s and women’s teams during international friendlies, tournaments, and the World Cup. It also puts $2m towards charitable efforts around women’s and girl’s soccer, and a fund to support national team players in their post-competition careers.
The USWNT and the USSF have until 31 March to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
Other leading US soccer players, including OL Reign and US international midfielder Megan Rapinoe, have offered measured praise to the deal.
"There’s no real justice in this other than this never happening again," she told ESPN. "With the settlement of the working conditions and this settlement which is contingent upon a CBA that will have equal pay going forward, there’s no other way to look at it than just a monumental win for women’s sports and women’s soccer, in particular."
Though fans quickly rallied behind the team’s demands, chanting “Equal pay!” during the US squad’s 2019 World Cup win over the Netherlands, the deal’s path was far from assured.
At out point, the USWNT’s equal pay claims were dropped from the suit, forcing the players to appeal.
But as the lawsuit wore on, the public was increasingly on the USWNT’s side, especially in 2020 after a filing from the USSF was made public, which contained baldly sexist language regarding female players.
The USWNT "do not perform equal work requiring equal skill [and] effort" because "the overall soccer-playing ability required to compete at the senior men’s national team level is materially influenced by the level of certain physical attributes such as speed and strength,” it wrote in the document, essentially arguing women should be paid less because they are physically inferior.
The lawsuit also revealed stark differences in how the men’s and women’s teams, which operate under separate collective bargaining agreements, are paid.
USWMNT make roughly half of what men do in bonuses if they make the World Cup, while the US men’s team still gets bonuses if they lose even as the women get nothing.
