The U.S. Women’s National Soccer team has reached an agreement in its class-action equal-pay lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
“We are pleased to announce that, contingent on the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement, we will have resolved our longstanding dispute over equal pay and proudly stand together in a shared commitment to advancing equality in soccer,” both parties said in a joint statement Tuesday.
U.S. Soccer has agreed to pay $22 million in back pay to the players, which will be distributed in a way that was proposed by players and approved by courts. The federation will also put $2 million into a fund for USWNT players’ post-careers, with each player eligible for up to $50,000.
The federation has also promised to provide an equal rate of pay between the genders in all friendly matches and tournaments—including the World Cup.
“Getting to this day has not been easy,” the parties said in the statement.
The litigation stems from a federal equal pay complaint filed by five members of the women’s national team in 2016 who said the women’s team was paid thousands of dollars less than the men at nearly every level. 28 players then sued U.S. Soccer in March 2019.
The lawsuit was born months after the men’s team failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018 and just before the women’s team went on to win its second consecutive tournament in 2019.
In May 2020, a federal judge dismissed the women’s claims—as well as other key parts of the suit including differences in the contract structures to which they had agreed in collective bargaining. Other aspects of the suit vis a vis working conditions were settled out of court in December.
Several players filed an appeal in July 2021, saying the judge hadn’t looked at rates of pay and the fact that women had to win more often than men to receive bonuses.
The settlement is contingent on the new collective bargaining agreement’s ratification by the USWNT Players Association.
“After the parties finalize the settlement agreement, they plan to advise the district court of the settlement, and then seek a limited remand from this Court under Federal Rule of the Appellate Procedure 12.1 so that the district court can consider the settlement,” the parties said in a joint motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday.
The agreement falls short of the $66 million-plus that the players had sought in back pay, but it still amounts to a significant victory.
“We feel like this is a huge win—obviously contingent upon the ratification of the CBA—but it will have equal pay on everything moving forward,” Megan Rapinoe, captain of the Seattle-based OL Reign as well as the women’s national team, said. “It’s honestly kind of surreal. I feel like I need to take a step back. We’ve all been in the trenches of it for so long. I think I honestly don’t even understand how monumental this is.”
