U.S. Women’s Soccer Class Action Reaches Deal To Obtain Equal Pay

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Update:

• New collective bargaining agreements announced today will give U.S. women’s soccer players the chance to make the same amount of money as their male counterparts. 
• U.S. Soccer and the players’ unions struck the deals.
• The agreements will be good through 2028 and are a crucial piece to a $24 million equal pay class action settlement reached in February.
• Final approval of the settlement agreement had been on hold pending the approval of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
• Under the new CBAs, the U.S. men and women’s national soccer teams will share the prize money from the FIFA World Cup.
• The teams will also collect equal appearance fees, shares of commercial revenue and game bonuses. 

U.S. Soccer Equal Pay Act Class Action Settlement Overview:

• Who: The U.S. Soccer Federation and women’s national team players have reached a $24 million settlement. 
• Why: The settlement ends a high-profile equal pay and pay discrimination litigation brought by players of the women’s team against the federation.
• Where: The settlement was filed in the Ninth Circuit.

(Feb. 23, 2022)

A six-year fight over equal pay at the top levels of United States soccer has resulted in a $24 million settlement payment to U.S. women’s team players plus a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s national teams.

In a joint motion filed Feb. 22 in the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) players said they were currently working to finalize a settlement agreement and sought to cancel an upcoming hearing in the court of appeal.

Under the terms of the settlement, the athletes, a group consisting of several dozen current and former women’s national team players, will share $24 million in payments from the federation, the New York Times reports. The bulk of that figure is back pay.

A $2 million part of the payment will be paid into an account “to benefit USWNT players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women’s and girls’ soccer,” the settlement reportedly said. 

The deal is reliant on the USWNT players ratifying a new collective bargaining agreement. U.S. Soccer has also promised to give equal pay going forward for the women’s and men’s national teams in all friendlies and tournaments, including the World Cup.

“We are pleased to announce that, contingent on the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement, we will have resolved our longstanding dispute over equal pay and proudly stand together in a shared commitment to advancing equality in soccer,” the players and the federation said in a joint statement. “Getting to this day has not been easy.”

Women’s Soccer Players Argue Compensation Unfair Compared To Male Counterparts 

Women’s soccer players, including Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, filed a $67 million lawsuit against U.S. Soccer back in 2019, arguing their compensation is unfair compared to that of their male counterparts. The case dates back to a 2016 complaint lodged with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A federal judge in California sided with U.S. Soccer in May 2020, determining that the women players actually get paid more on average per game than the men.

The women’s players countered, however, that women receive less bonuses for winning games and that their pay was only similar because they won 30% more of their matches. 

U.S. Soccer countered that their bonuses were only lower because that is how their union decided to set up their pay structures, whereas the men chose to focus more on incentive pay in their collective bargaining agreement.

The women’s team players had asked the Ninth Circuit to revive those claims, arguing that the judge failed to look at the underlying rates of pay, ignoring the fact that the women had to far outperform the men to earn more compensation.

The USWNT won back-to-back FIFA Women’s World Cups in 2015 and 2019 while the U.S. Men’s National Team failed to even qualify for the last men’s tournament in 2018.

Do you believe women’s soccer players get unfairly compensated in comparison to their male counterparts? Let us know in the comments! 

The players are represented in the Equal Pay case by Jeffrey L. Kessler, David G. Feher, Cardelle B. Spangler, Jeanifer E. Parsigian and Diana Hughes Leiden of Winston & Strawn LLP and Nicole A. Saharsky, Carmen Longoria-Green, Minh Nguyen-Dang and Michael A. Scodro of Mayer Brown LLP.

The US Soccer Equal Pay Settlement is Morgan et al. v. U.S. Soccer Federation Inc., Case No. 21-55356, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

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