It was often stereotyped that men are “better” than women at everything they do; men should be in the office and can only be the CEO while women stay at home to cook dinner and clean the laundry. Although many of these old beliefs have gone away and women now have proven they can do anything men can, the issue of sex equality has only been resolved to some extent. There is still an unfair wage dispute in many places like small company offices, and even at the larger corporate level.
Members of the US Women’s National Team, including Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe, filled a federal complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on March 30 in regards to wage discrimination, demanding similar compensation and bonuses as the men’s national team players. They claim they earn as little as 40 percent of what the national men’s team makes.
Although the Equal Pay Act, which was the first federal anti-discrimination laws that addressed wage differences based on gender, was passed back in 1963, still in 2014, women only earn 79% of what men do, according to American Association of University Women. Although this issue has decreased over the years due to women’s progress in the workforce ever since World War 2, the problem is still relevant today.
“If you are doing the same amount of work for the same job and putting in the same amount of time, then you should get the same amount of pay as everyone else who does it,” NHS freshman Carly Swierbut said.
The differences between each team’s means of payment (salaries and benefits, rather than appearance basis) does make the comparisons more complicated than if they were identical.
“If I were a male soccer player who won a World Cup for the United States, my bonus would be $390,000. Because I am a female soccer player, the bonus I got for our World Cup victory last summer was $75,000,” midfielder on the US Women’s National Team Carli Lloyd said
When the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed, many would think this problem would disintegrate. So why is this still an issue when there is legality behind it?
“Sexist issues exist in every part of our business world and men’s and women’s sports certainly do fall under the category of business. Sexism has been such a long-standing issue that it will not be resolved easily. Comparison is inevitable,” former NHS soccer captain Maddy Sieber said.
Profits are made off game attendance, and since the men’s game noticeably draws more of an audience, their salary figure is higher than the women’s given the discrepancy. The women might be fighting for a cause that may be impossible to solve. Sieber’s point conveys the actual divide between both sexes.
“I think that [the women's team] is over-exaggerating. In essence, the divide between men and women soccer player salaries is justified,” Sieber said.
This issue isn’t just about the women getting their equal pay and money, but rather getting their equal rights and power as men do. The women on the team claim this complaint is not just about the money but for getting the treatment they deserve regardless if they are female or male. This issue may not be present with just with the soccer teams, but with jobs and companies all around the country as the number of female CEOs and executives has increased in the last decade.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” goalkeeper Hope Solo said. “We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships.” The women players claim the men’s team “gets paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”
It does not seem like the movement for equal pay for all jobs will be resolved anytime soon but for the time being many advocate for small steps to be taken in the right direction.
“I think the only way to equalize salaries among men and women soccer players is to draw more of an audience to women’s sports through advertising. The efforts should be concentrated on increasing popularity of women's soccer,” Sieber said.
The women’s game over the past thirty years has developed from the push to include it in the Olympics to the creation of the Women’s Soccer League. The equal pay can be seen as just another step along the path to fully equalizing the women's pay to the men’s.
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