How many times and how many different ways does the U.S. women's national team have to explain?
Monday, the U.S. women's national team players filed a reply to the court explaining why the U.S. Soccer Federation's last argument against the players' equal pay lawsuit is still invalid.
Last week USSF filed a motion to the court against the players' request for class action certification of their suit. It claimed four players _ Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, and Becky Sauerbrunn _ that want to represent the class make too much money when compared to the rest of the team and therefore can't adequately represent them.
The USWNT wants all players called up to the national team to be part of the class. In a reply filed in a Central California U.S. district court Monday, the players point out that the only legal requirement for those who can represent a class is "that there be a 'sufficient likelihood that (plaintiffs) will again be wronged in a similar way' in the future."
The reply also says that the only reason that Rapinoe, Morgan, Lloyd and Sauerbrunn have made so much more money is that they've played in far more games than the rest of their teammates.
USWNT lawyers found the four players who out-earn their teammates had still made nearly 2/3 less than what they should have earned if they were paid what the USSF Collective Bargaining Agreement dictates men get paid.
"This is the very definition of gender discrimination, which is illegal," Molly Levinson, spokesperson for the USWNT players in their equal pay lawsuit, said in a statement following Monday's filing. "USSF has repeatedly tried to distort these figures _ including by hiring lobbyists, creating PowerPoint presentations with false data, trying to blame FIFA, and purposely manipulating the equation."
Morgan had earned about $1.2 million in that time period based on the WNT's CBA. If she played the same number of games with the same number of wins under the men's CBA, she would have earned about $4.1 million; Lloyd, who earned about $1.2 million in that time frame, should have earned close to $4.17 million; Rapinoe, who earned a little less than $1.16 million, should have made close to $3.72 million; and Sauerbrunn, who earned about $1.18 million, should have made a little more than $4.17 million.
"The math is simple," Levinson said. "When the rates from the men's CBA are applied to each woman player's record and performance, the results show an unmistakably large pay gap."
The Monday reply also included signed statements from Morgan and Lloyd that said they had "played more games on inferior surface of play, artificial turf, than the MNT."
The lawsuit filed in March cited "institutionalized gender discrimination" including not just USWNT paychecks, but training, travel, coaching, playing, and medical treatment.
In July, U.S. Soccer boss Carlos Cordeiro released a letter and "fact sheet" that supposedly explained there was no discrimination as the WNT earned more than the MNT from 2010-18. The letter didn't include that the women played twice as many games and amassed more wins. It also did not include the men's team also has the ability to earn higher bonuses than the women, but has not been able to capitalize on collecting those bonuses out of lack of success in big tournaments _ like failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
U.S. Soccer has also argued revenue generation and interest plays a part in any pay disparity. Yet, audited reports of USSF finances released in June revealed the revenue gap _ including that generated from ticket sales _ shrunk and for the most part disappeared. The WNT generated nearly $51 million in revenue (mostly from ticket sales) from 2016-18. In the same time frame, the men generated just under $50 million, according to the report.
