Pay the women

Why don’t they pay the girls? The National Football League pays the cheerleaders minimum wage if at all meanwhile they make billions of dollars and don’t pay taxes. The women’s basketball league does not pay the women the same wages as the men. Now the soccer teams have unequal pay meanwhile they are out performing the men. The women are finally fighting back. In this past March 5 members of the United States Soccer Team sued the Soccer Federation for wage discrimination. They get paid far less than the US Men’s Soccer Players. Meanwhile since the year 2000-2016 the women’s team won 295 games and the men’s team only won 150 games. They even clearly out- perform the men’s team and get no respect. Why? Should they even have to sue for some well -earned recognition and pay?

It is also the first case taken by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Jeffrey Kessler is the legal counsel for the U.S. Women’s National Team. It is the clearest case of gender pay discrimination. Even if this group of women did not out-perform the men they deserve equal pay for participating in the same sport. They even work for the same employer as the men. Yet they make dramatically less pay. In 2015 the women’s team won The World Cup and earned more revenue from ticket sales than the men’s team so they can’t say the girls do  not fill the stadiums.

The women are projected to fill the stadiums this year as well. The corrupt federation still is not offering more pay in the new agreement. Why? The equal pay debate is complicated because the both teams have different structures to their pay scale. The women are guaranteed $72,000 per year. That is $3,600 per game. The men have no guaranteed salary but are paid more per game at $5,000 per game. Both teams play about 20 games per year. So right there the men are getting $100,000 per year. Both teams win bonuses for winning but the men. The women’s bonus is only $1,350 per game but the men’s bonus is $6,250 per game.

Becky Sauerbrunn is the Co-Captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team says that if they tie or lose a game they get no bonus. The men have a ranking system. If the men  play a team ranked between 1-10, they still receive $17,000. So if the women’s team have a perfect season they get paid $99,000. If the men play a perfect season they get paid almost three times as much at $263,320. Yeah girls, take those bums to court!

Why doesn’t the Soccer Federation want to invest in the winning women? They say they are now working on a new agreement. Meanwhile the women are waiting on the terms of their new contract. Support women’s soccer already!