Four of the top players for the U.S. women’s national soccer team, including Megan Rapinoe, argued their pay would be three times as much if they were men.
The FIFA World Cup winners have been engaged in a months-long legal battle with the U.S. Soccer Federation over wages after the players sued the federation for gender discrimination in March.
Mediation between the two parties broke down in August, and the federation said a month later that it opposed the players’ request that the court certify the players as a class in which Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, and Becky Sauerbrunn would be appointed as class representatives.
The class designation would award team members injunctive relief, back pay, and punitive damages from Feb. 4, 2014 to the present. The federation argued that the four players earned more than the highest-paid players on the men’s national team and thus suffered “no injury.”
Lawyers for the players pushed back in a court filing Monday against those claims, saying the four only made more because they played in more games and won two World Cups during the period in question.
“The USSF’s claim that the four class representatives have not suffered any injury to confer standing is based on the illogical and ‘absurd’ claim that the discriminatory pay rate does not cause injury so long as the women being discriminated against work much more and achieve better results to earn a comparable about of pay,” the court filing said.
“The [women’s national team] played far more games, with much greater success, during this period, which is the only reason why the four proposed class representatives were able to earn a higher total compensation than the men they have been compared to on the [men’s national team].”
If the women had been paid at the same rate as their male counterparts, the court filing said, Rapinoe would have made nearly $3.7 million instead of $1.2 million from March 2014 until October 2019. Morgan would have earned $4.1 million instead of $1.2 million, Lloyd and Sauerbrunn would have earned $4.2 million instead of $1.2 million.
“The notion that a woman has to work two jobs to have a chance to make what a male earns at a single job is not only legally wrong under Title VII and the Equal Pay Act, it is morally repugnant,” the lawyers wrote.
Rapinoe has been outspoken on other issues, at times drawing scrutiny to herself and the team. After being awarded Best FIFA Women’s Player last month, Rapinoe used the platform to discuss gay rights and women’s pay.
“If everyone was as outraged about homophobia as the LGBTQ players, if everyone was as outraged about equal pay or the lack thereof or the lack of investment in the women’s game other than just women — that would be the most inspiring thing to me,” she said.
Rapinoe also said in May that it would “take a lot” to convince her to sing the national anthem again. She has publicly feuded with President Trump, saying she was “not going to the f—ing White House.”
