US Women’s Soccer Team Gets Equal Pay Class Action Certified

UPDATE 2: 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: On Feb. 20, 2020, 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.

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.

The decision to certify the Class was made by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who determined that the women had adequately shown that they were paid less per game than the men’s team. He determined that the Class should be certified because the team members have each been affected, as has the class representatives.

Additionally, the judge also said that the players sufficiently claimed that they were subjected to unequal working conditions. Allegedly, the women’s team has been given fewer charter flights than the men’s team, have been made to play more often on lower-quality playing surface, and the tickets for their games are sold for lower prices than those of the men’s games. 

Two Classes of players were certified — a damages Class and an injunctive relief Class. The damages Class is composed of those players allegedly affected by the previous pay inequity and unequal working conditions, and the injunctive relief Class is composed of those players seeking future pay equality and equal playing conditions. 

In deciding to certify the Classes of U.S. Women’s Soccer players, Judge Klausner rejected a number of arguments made by the U.S. Soccer Federation about why the Classes should not be certified.

The U.S. Soccer Federation claimed that the women do not have standing to say they were subjected to discriminatory pay structures because they “each made significantly more money than the highest paid MNT player over the course of the limitations period.” However, Judge Klausner disagreed with the assertion, saying that though the women players may have made more, they were paid at a rate lower than the rate paid to men.

The women also alleged that they were required to play more games, and were not paid for losing games, whereas the men were, among other inequalities.

The Equal Pay Act reportedly requires men and women to be paid equal rates. Judge Klausner rejected the U.S. Soccer Federation’s arguments, saying that he agreed with the women’s assertion that they made more because they were required to do more work than the men, but were paid at a lower rate for the work. 

To explain why the U.S. Soccer Federation’s argument was invalid, Judge Klausner pointed to a previous cases in which lawyers argued that “as a matter of common sense, total renumeration cannot be the proper point of comparison” noting that if total renumeration were at issue, “an employer who pays a woman $10 per hour and a man $20 would not violate the EPA…as long as the woman negated the obvious disparity by working twice as many hours.” Judge Klausner stresses that this would be absurd. 

Have you been in a situation in which you believe you were being treated unfairly because of gender? Tell us more.

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 Pay Parity 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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