US Women’s Soccer Team Pay Bias Class Action Moves Forward

Emily Sortor | May 3, 2019

Category: Legal News

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UPDATE 4: On Dec. 1, 2020, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team settled its class action lawsuit over working conditions with the U.S. Soccer Federation, but the team’s fight for equal pay continues.

UPDATE 3: On Nov. 8, 2019, U.S. Women’s Soccer players have received Class certification in a lawsuit claiming that the World Cup champions are subjected to discriminatory practices by the U.S. Soccer Federation, because they are paid less than their male counterparts.

UPDATE 2: On Sept. 11, 2019, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team moved for Class certification in a lawsuit arguing that the federation’s pay rules are a “textbook example” of discrimination.

UPDATE: On July 1, 2019, as the U.S. women’s soccer team wins another World Cup, a legal battle continues over alleged gender pay discrimination between the men’s and women’s teams — the women’s national team is suing their employers, the U.S. Soccer Federation, for paying them significantly less than their male counterparts.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team will be allowed to proceed with its gender pay discrimination class action lawsuit after a federal judge denied a request to stay the case.

The United States Soccer Federation requested a stay on litigation while the players’ request to transfer the case to a related lawsuit is pending.

However, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner declined this request, allowing the case to move forward.

Judge Klausner said on Tuesday that the federation had not presented a sufficiently compelling reason to have the women’s soccer class action lawsuit stalled.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is currently assessing the players’ request to have the gender pay gap class action lawsuit transferred to the Northern District of California. In the Northern District of California, a related lawsuit is pending.

According to the United States Soccer Federation, the ruling on this gender pay gap class action lawsuit could be affected by being transferred, because the court who is currently presiding over the case may make a different determination than the one that ultimately would decide the ruling.

Judge Klausner disagreed with this claim, saying, “While the JPML’s decision may impact the current case, a decision is unlikely until later this year. Therefore, in the interest of justice and judicial economy, the court finds that a stay at this juncture is not warranted.”

The U.S. women’s soccer team filed the proposed soccer gender pay gap class action lawsuit on International Women’s Day in March of this year. The women claim that they are paid much less than their male counterparts, despite performing better.

The players argued that the U.S. Soccer Federation violated the Equal Pay Act, an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. They also claimed that the federation violated the Civil Rights Act.

The pro soccer gender pay gap class action asserted that the U.S. Soccer Federation acts as one employer for both the men’s and women’s teams.

Allegedly, the federation pays the men much more — nearly $5.4 million in performance bonuses compared to the women’s $1.7 million paid to players in 2014 — despite the fact that the women play better.

To support this claim that the women’s team has superior performance to that of the men’s team, the players note that the women’s team won the World Cup tournament in 2015 while the men’s team lost in just the first round of the tournament.

This gender pay gap class action lawsuit filed by the women’s team as a whole comes on the heels of a complaint by Hope Solo, the goal keeper for the team. Solo’s claims also addressed similar issues, and was filed with four other players on the team.

The women’s soccer team are represented by Jeffrey L. Kessler, David G. Feher, Cardelle B. Spangler, Diana Hughes Leiden, and Jeanifer E. Parsigian of Winston & Strawn LLP.

The U.S. Women’s Soccer Gender Pay Gap Class Action Lawsuit is Morgan, et al. v. United States Soccer Federation Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-01717, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.