The U.S. women’s national soccer team has finally admitted that they are paid the same if not more than the U.S. men’s national team, but are still arguing they don’t receive equal pay because, they claim, they have “to work more than a man and be much more successful” to receive “about the same pay.”
The Hill reported that the women’s team has appealed the May 2020 decision of Judge Gary Klausner, who dismissed the team’s claims that they were discriminated against because of their gender on the issue of pay. As The Daily Wire reported at the time, Klausner noted that the women’s team rejected the same pay structure that the men’s team uses.
“The WNT was willing to forgo higher bonuses for benefits, such as greater base compensation and the guarantee of a higher number of contracted players,” Klausner wrote in his ruling. “Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot now retroactively deem their CBA (collective bargaining agreement) worse than the MNT (men’s national team) CBA by reference to what they would have made had they been paid under the MNT’s pay-to-play terms structure when they themselves rejected such a structure.”
The women’s team previously attempted to get the pay discrimination claim reinstated by appealing to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, they’ve filed their direct appeal of Klausner’s ruling, claiming it was “based on a flawed analysis of the team’s compensation, despite the abundant evidence of unequal pay.”
The appeal, filed by 28 current and former players, requested Klausner reconsider several factors, including the fact that the women’s team, on average, wins more games than the men’s team.
“In effect, the 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. That is not the law,” the appeal reads, according to the Hill.
Molly Levinson, spokeswoman for the players, told CNN: “If a woman has to work more than a man and be much more successful than him to earn about the same pay, that is decidedly not equal pay and it violates the law.”
“And yet, that is exactly what the women players on the US National team do — they play more games and achieve better results in order to be paid about the same amount as the men’s national team players per game. By any measure, that is not equal pay, and it violates federal law,” Levinson added.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, the women’s soccer team brings in less money because it has fewer viewers than men’s soccer. The only time this changes is when the women’s team makes it to the World Cup, something the U.S. Men’s team hasn’t done.
After the players appealed Klausner’s ruling, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) responded on Twitter, agreeing with Klausner’s original determination.
“The District Court rightly noted that the Women’s National Team negotiated for a different pay structure than the Men’s National Team, and correctly held that the Women’s National Team was paid more both cumulatively and on an average per-game basis than the Men’s National Team,” USSF wrote.
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Source: Dailywire
