U.S. Women’s Soccer Players Want $66.7M in Gender Pay Class Action Lawsuit

UPDATE: 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.

A group of women soccer players who say they are paid much less than men by the U.S. Soccer Federation claim that they are owed nearly $67 million in damages.

The plaintiffs also allege that the collective bargaining agreements that have come to light as a part of the U.S. women’s soccer gender pay class action lawsuit are evidence of unequal compensation between men and women.

The complaint was originally filed on International Women’s Day in March 2019 alleging that the U.S. Soccer Federation paid women players much less than their male counterparts, despite better performance. It came on the heels of the women’s team winning the World Cup.

The U.S. women’s soccer gender pay class action survived a motion to stay the litigation. Then, in November 2019, the plaintiffs’ proposed Classes were certified by a federal judge. The proposed Classes include a damages Class and injunctive relief Class.

The class action lawsuit alleges that not only were U.S. women soccer players paid less, they were given less access to resources and benefits, like chartered flights, inferior playing fields, and lower ticket prices, than male soccer players.

Most recently, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment on some of the U.S. women’s soccer gender pay class action lawsuit claims. The motion argues that the collective bargaining agreements that have been made public by the litigation proves that pay discrimination exists.

“This is the rare case where it is plaintiffs who are entitled to summary judgment in a wage discrimination case because the undisputed fact of the rate of pay discrimination against the female employees is contained in written collective bargaining agreements and the common defendant employer has not come forward with evidence to meet its burden of proving that this indisputable discrimination is the result of a cause other than gender or that any other affirmative defenses apply,” contends the plaintiffs in their motion.

In response, the U.S. Soccer Federation argued that men and women were paid for different services.

“Plaintiffs ask the court to conclude that U.S. Soccer is required to pay them the same amount of money for winning the Women’s World Cup that the [Men’s National Team] would have been paid if they had won the World Cup for men,” claimed the defendant in its motion.

“The undisputed facts, however, show that the two events are ‘completely different tournaments’ and that U.S. Soccer legitimately ‘bargained differently’ to determine the compensation for players competing in these two different competitions.”

What do you think about the alleged unequal pay between men and women soccer players? Tell us in the comments below.

The soccer players are represented by Jeffrey L. Kessler, David G. Feder, Cardelle B. Spangler, Diana Hughes Leiden, and Jennifer E. Parsigian of Winston & Strawn LLP.

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

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