Senate gives U.S. women's soccer team symbolic victory with equal pay resolution
The U.S. women's soccer team has three World Cup championships and four Olympic gold medals. What they don't have, say players, is equal pay.
On Thursday the squad scored a symbolic victory in their battle for equal pay when the Senate passed a non-binding resolution calling on the U.S. Soccer Federation to "immediately eliminate gender pay inequity and treat all athletes with the same respect and dignity."
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) penned the resolution, which meticulously outlined the team's success and detailed how all women face pay discrimination. Murray appealed to fairness in her remarks on the Senate floor:
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"The pay gap between the men and women’s national soccer teams is emblematic of what is happening all across our country. On average, women get paid just 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. This is at a time when women, more than ever, are likely to be the primary breadwinner for their family. The wage gap isn’t just unfair to women. It hurts families. And it hurts our economy."
In March, five of the team's players filed a pay discrimination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which alleged that players earn significantly less than members of the men's squad.
The female players, according to the EEOC complaint, receive $72,000 annually to play a minimum of 20 friendly matches with the promise of a $1,350 bonus for each victory. The men don't earn an annual salary, but can make a minimum of $100,000 even if they lose every game.
"The pay gap...is emblematic of what is happening all across our country."
U.S. Soccer has disputed the claim's allegations and declined to comment on the passage of Murray's resolution.
The resolution's passage is noteworthy because Republicans blocked a similar proposal drafted by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last fall.
Leahy introduced that resolution when the women's team earned a $2 million payout for winning the World Cup in 2015. The U.S. men's team, however, won $8 million just for reaching the round-of-16 in the 2014 World Cup, and Germany, the tournament's champion, brought home $35 million.
Leahy's resolution called on FIFA, international soccer's governing body, to eliminate gender discrimination between male and female athletes.
Republicans may have decided against opposing Murray's resolution given the team's growing popularity, but it may also be a political test. Congressional Republicans are under pressure to consolidate support for presumptive presidential nominee Donald J. Trump and convince voters that the party supports women.
The resolution clearly had a broader aim than to just support some of the best soccer players in the world. Since it passed without an objection, the Republicans may now find it more difficult to contest federal equal pay legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act, which Mikulski introduced in 2013.
Murray wasn't shy about making that connection.
"[I]f we pass this resolution today," she said, "then I hope Republicans will support equal pay for equal work for all American women with more than just words, and will work with us to pass Senator Mikulski’s Paycheck Fairness Act as quickly as possible."
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Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes. Rebecca has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a masters degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
