USA Women's Soccer Players Should Not Make Same Amount as Male Counterparts

by Julian Spivey
The United States Women’s National Team won their second consecutive World Cup title when it defeated the Netherlands squad 2-0 on Sunday, July 7 in France in the 2019 games. It’s the country’s fourth overall World Cup win. The United States have now won exactly half of the Women’s World Cups since the event was formed in 1991.
​
Much of the talk during the Women’s World Cup this past month has revolved around the fact that the members of the United States Men’s National Team make more money than their counterparts on the Women’s National Team. It’s a controversy that has been around for some time but has truly come to a head with the women winning their second consecutive World Cup title.

When the U.S. women were being awarded the World Cup trophy on Sunday the crowd in Lyon, France broke out with an “Equal Pay!” chant. U.S. Women’s co-captain and star player Megan Rapinoe, who was awarded both the Golden Ball (best overall player of the World Cup) and Golden Boot (top goalscorer of the World Cup) responded with, “a little public shame never hurt anybody.”

In reality the talk around equal pay for the USWNT compared to their male counterparts is ridiculous. The women should not receive equal pay to the men. They should receive more … perhaps a lot more.

The reasoning is quite simple. The women’s team is the best women’s soccer team in the world. Their play, their statistics and their trophies prove this. The men of the game in this country simply are not the best. This was proven by the fact that they didn’t even qualify for the Men’s World Cup in Russia last year.

The women make $3,600 per match, which is $1,500 less a match than the men receive when it comes to base salary. Even more ridiculous is the World Cup bonuses paid out to these teams. The women receive $15,000 in World Cup bonuses, whereas the men make a whopping $55,000 in bonuses if they can actually make the World Cup.

Even if you don’t really follow the sport of soccer or are a novice sports fan in general you’ve probably heard the names of the biggest stars on the women’s team: Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd. These three members have played in three consecutive World Cups and have combined for 28 total World Cup goals over those three events. Rapinoe was the star this time around, whereas Lloyd was the top goalscorer four years ago. Lloyd, as well as her teammate and co-captain Morgan, are both in the top-10 all-time when it comes to international play goals scored, both have more than 100 goals. At the moment there’s likely no one more accomplished when it comes to World Cup play in either gender in the sport than Rapinoe, Morgan and Lloyd.

If you’re not a full-time soccer fan in this country you might not even know the names of the biggest stars on the Men’s National Team like Christian Pulisic and Jozy Altidore. Only three of the players on the men’s team where even on the squad the last time they made a World Cup appearance in 2014. Nobody on the current Men’s National Team has ever scored a World Cup goal.

Yet, the men make a ridiculous amount more – especially when it comes to the sport’s biggest event – than the women, who are much better at the game. That’s simply not right. It’s not even so much an equality issue, as it is the women are the best team in this nation when it comes to soccer and should be paid as such.

Not only are the women better soccer players in this country, but they also make more of a profit than the men’s team. According to Yahoo Sports, the U.S. Soccer Federation budgeted for a loss of $430,000 for the two teams in 2016 but wound up making a profit of $17.7 million due to the Women’s 2015 World Cup win and the team’s popularity in general. They should’ve spread that money around the women’s team and told the men’s team “better luck next time.”

The United States Soccer Federation better start paying up these superstars, otherwise they might eventually put their foot down and both United States National Teams might end up on their sofas when the next World Cups come around. 

---