Pay equality is possible, pay disparity can be ended. The United States Football (Soccer) Federation has reached a historic collective agreement whereby players, regardless of gender, will receive equal compensation when they play championships or friendly matches in the national jersey. This has been announced by both teams. This implies the creation of a mechanism to share the same amount of money coming from the world championships, as well as from unofficial matches or commercial events linked to the selection.
This principle of labor agreement has been reached after years of pressure on the federation by the women's team, four times winners of the highest title at national team level since the competition was created in 1991.
This is the final step to close the gap between each other. The path was already paved last February, when stars like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan led the initiative to receive compensation of 24 million dollars, to be distributed among several dozen players to compensate for emolument discrimination. Then it was established that they should charge the same, but everything was pending the negotiation between the federation and the representatives of both squads.
This pact is the last effort to resolve an issue that involves two very different teams in terms of results (the men have never achieved anything relevant) and in their economic compensation structures, which greatly harmed the great ambassadors of soccer, whose contribution to the prestige of this sport has been essential for the expansion of this sport in a country where there was little interest in American football, baseball or basketball.
Despite being crowned the best in the world, they received much less money than men, who in 2018 did not even qualify for the final phase of the tournament. The agreement seeks to eliminate the differences by creating "identical economic terms" for the two teams. In friendlies, a similar scale will be established based on the quality of the opponent and the publicity attraction.
"I feel very proud," international Becky Sauerbrunn said on NBC's 'Today' show on Wednesday. "We can finally say that equal pay for equal work, this makes me very happy," she added.
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