Current Events > Judge rules AGAINST US Women's Soccer team in equal pay lawsuit

(+) Yeah! (+)

A federal judge in California ruled in favor of the United States Soccer Federation on most of the key points in the ongoing wage discrimination lawsuit brought by members of the U.S. women's national team player pool, dealing a potentially fatal setback to the players in the high-profile case.

Players based the lawsuit filed last year on two grounds: first, that U.S. Soccer violated the Equal Pay Act (EPA) by paying them less than members of the men's national team; and second, that the federation discriminated against them under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically with regard to workplace conditions.

Judge R. Gary Klausner on Friday ruled for U.S. Soccer's motion for summary judgment with regard to the Equal Pay Act, stating in his decision that the players "have not demonstrated a triable issue that WNT players are paid less than MNT players."

Klausner's ruling was informed by the federation's contention that women's players were paid more in total and on a per-game basis than their male counterparts during the period in question. Friday's ruling cited as undisputed fact that from 2015 to 2019, the women's national team averaged $220,747 per game in total payments (for a total of $24.5 million), while the men's national team averaged $212,639 per game in total payments (for a total of $18.5 million).

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Instead, the differences in collective bargaining agreements between the women's team and the men's team proved to be the undoing of the EPA claims.

Klausner effectively concluded that differences in payment structure were the result of choices made by the women's players and their union -- including guaranteed annual salaries of at least $100,000 for 20 contracted players -- and not discrimination by the federation.

https://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/story/_/id/29125363/judge-sides-us-soccer-equal-pay-lawsuit

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Shit, the male teams should sue for equal pay. After all, they're making less than their female counterparts despite working more hours.

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Isn't it fair to assume that the women's team is only making more because they're more successful? :\

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Bump

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Interesting

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Hexenherz posted...

Isn't it fair to assume that the women's team is only making more because they're more successful? :\

Kind of. It's mostly all about the ratings but being successful is key in getting those ratings.
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So they should have brought suit to their Players Union for poor collective bargaining practices instead of the Soccer Federation?

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Is it poor? Just seems different, though I guess your perspective depends on whether or not you're rapinoe or some back bencher no one knows

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Hexenherz posted...

Isn't it fair to assume that the women's team is only making more because they're more successful? :\

The women's teams argument in this case is that if they had the same size audience that men's soccer does they would be making significantly more. Their argument was never about whether they were underpaid relative to the men's team in absolute terms, but whether the way in which their pay scales up is equitable, but as the article points out they're on a different scale because unlike the men's team they also have pay guarantees and other things that they fought for.

They got exactly the contract they wanted, and are getting paid more than the men's team, but they're angry because if the men's team were world champions too they would be making more. It's crazy and I'm glad the judge is being sensible here.

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Yeah I mean it seems pretty cut and dried. Though that makes me curious why the defendants did what they did initially if this defense was available to them

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So the pay difference is fair legally but not ethically.

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shockthemonkey posted...

Im glad that all the details came out and they ruled on it. The way the two different contracts are structured made this weird to look over when both sides were saying what little they could to the public. Hopefully the womens team re-structures their deal if its not working out for them since they really are the flagship of US Soccer.

What's weird is the fact that they were given the option in 2016 to have the exact same contract as the men's team and actively turned it down in exchange for the offer they took. They clearly thought that they were getting a better deal at the time.

Klausner noted that representatives for the players rejected a pay-for-play model identical to the men early in those negotiations in 2016. In later negotiations, the players offered a counterproposal with lesser bonuses than the federation's offer in exchange for more contracted players and higher base salaries -- benefits not part of the CBA between U.S. Soccer and the men's union.

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DarkChozoGhost posted...

So the pay difference is fair legally but not ethically.

It's ethically fair too. They actively turned down the same deal for one with more pay guarantees for more players. They got exactly what they wanted.

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Well yeah. Not alot of ppl believed they had a chance. Majority of Twitter weren't on their side either. That should tell you something.

The USWNT deserves to be paid way more than the UWMNT because the men's team sucks ass.

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shockthemonkey posted...

Yeah thats just strange. Seems like different people having different goals.

Which is a totally normal thing. I could see somebody having to seriously consider which to take between a more stable pay structure with a safe floor and a riskier pay structure with a higher maximum. Both have obvious benefits.

But I also can't see any circumstance where anyone would think it's fair when somebody who chose the safer option attempts to retroactively get all the benefits of the risky option because they happened to do better than anticipated at the time of the original contract.

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Kavatar posted...

The USWNT deserves to be paid way more than the UWMNT because the men's team sucks ass.

They were from 2015 to 2019 though.

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Kavatar posted...

The USWNT deserves to be paid way more than the UWMNT because the men's team sucks ass.

The NFCE still has an enormous market share despite having two trash teams and two more that are frequently trash.

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Trump

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They really do deserve it considering they are without a doubt the better team. Unfortunately, women's sports typically bring in less money and attention.

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SauI_Goodman posted...

They really do deserve it considering they are without a doubt the better team. Unfortunately, women's sports typically bring in less money and attention.

Better in which sense?

Obviously not in absolute terms; even the mediocre US men's team would destroy them.

Yes, they're a lot better than their competition, but that's partially an artifact of international women's soccer being far less popular than international men's soccer and US being one of the countries who actually enjoys women's soccer.

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The USWNT can actually win fucking games. If anything they should be paid more than the men until the men can get their fucking act together.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

The USWNT can actually win fucking games. If anything they should be paid more than the men until the men can get their fucking act together.

well it looks like they are paid more, so

Tyranthraxus posted...

The USWNT can actually win fucking games. If anything they should be paid more than the men until the men can get their fucking act together.

Maybe they should have negotiated their bargaining agreement with more faith in themselves. Otherwise what they "should" be paid is irrelevant. They "should" be paid what they agreed to. Nobody forced them to sign a safer deal than the men's team.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

The USWNT can actually win fucking games. If anything they should be paid more than the men until the men can get their fucking act together.

You... You realize they ARE being paid more than men, right? You should probably read the article.

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I'm kind of surprised they went forward with this. Like what did they expect to happen? They fought for a specific compensation structure, got it, and now want something different so they're suing? Weird.

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Fair, next.

Wage gap argument fell apart.

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Monolith1676 posted...

Wage gap argument fell apart.

Yup, they brought it on themselves.

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this has nothing do with talent or success.
salaries in sports are based on the tv revenue they generate. unfortunately for the women's team, no one cares about them until the olympics.

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thebatz posted...

this has nothing do with talent or success.
salaries in sports are based on the tv revenue they generate. unfortunately for the women's team, no one cares about them until the olympics.

But, the women can't accept that fact.

That would be too harsh to their egos / pay checks.

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Lol

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Monolith1676 posted...

Wage gap argument fell apart.

This argument always made me lol. Its such a horseshit fallacy. We literally have laws that prohibit these practices.

if there was a wage gap even more of CE would be unemployed because no reasonable employer is going to pay anyone to come to work for $14/hr if they are legally allowed to pay a girl $10/hr to do the same work lmao.

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the women must hate christian pulisic

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LepartialJury posted...

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1256636638144446466

Joe Biden just lost the Hispanic vote. It also seems he has no idea that they chose lower pay.

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