Everyone wants equal pay for the 2019 FIFA World Cup winners - team USA

Team USA after winning the FIFA World Cup 2019 finals for the fourth time in history were greeted to chants of “equal pay” by the crowds.

The US team won 2-0 in the finals against the Netherlands in Lyon and will recieve around $30 million for winning the tournament.

Videos from the stadium in France show the chowrds chanting “Equal pay, equal pay” in support of the winners.

EQUAL PAY #USWNT pic.twitter.com/hQMGz6q54H

— Mina Park (@minapark) July 7, 2019

US fans now chanting “Equal pay! Equal pay!” A reminder that the entire #USWNT is suing US Soccer, and Pinoe lit FIFA up yesty for its abysmal treatment of the women's game.

— Nancy Armour (@nrarmour) July 7, 2019

US Women’s National Team lawsuit for equal pay

Recently, more than 50 members of Congress wrote a letter to the president of US Soccer demanding to know why the federation pays its women players a lot less than the men’s team, for doing the same job.

They wrote a few days before the World Cup final: “the U.S. Men’s National Team, USWNT players are receiving inferior wages, working conditions, and investment from US Soccer.”

In March 2019, prior to launching their winning World Cup campaign in France, 28 members of the USWNT sued the US Soccer Federation for discrimination. They said the reason for their lawsuit was “for substantially equal work and by denying them at least equal playing, training, and travel conditions; equal promotion of their games; equal support and development for their games; and other terms and conditions of employment equal to the MNT.”

“At this moment of tremendous pride for America, the sad equation remains all too clear, and Americans won’t stand for it anymore. These athletes generate more revenue and garner higher TV ratings but get paid less simply because they are women,” said Molly Levinson, spokeswoman for the USWNT players in their equal pay lawsuit.

“It is time for the Federation to correct this disparity once and for all.”

US Soccer Federation response

However, so far all the US Soccer Federation put out a tone deaf response on the disparity of income which basically said that the men’s tournament generated more income hence they were being paid more.

They said that the pay gap is “based on differences in the aggregate revenue generated by the different teams and/or any other factor other than sex.”

However, that may be true for the FIFA World Cup tournament as a whole but it’s not true when you compare the US men’s team to the US women’s team.

There have been eight total Women's World Cups. Here's how @USWNT has performed in each of them:

1991:
1995:
1999:
2003:
2007:
2011:
2015:
2019:

U.S. Men's National Team:

1930:

Tell me again why the U.S. Women's National Team is paid less?#USAvNED

— Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer) July 7, 2019

Over 1 billion people tuned into the Women’s World Cup this year. So, given that the US women’s football matches had stronger than average ticket sales and brought in more revenue from games than the men’s team in the last two years, plus coupled with their World Cup track record, if anything, they should be paid more than the men.