Gender Based Wage Discrimination Case Study

This year the U.S. Women’s Soccer team sued U.S. Soccer team for gender based wage discrimination. Although you would think there would be a simple solution to this problem, to give the women’s team equal pay, it has become much more complex than that. The U.S. Soccer Federation has many eyes looking at them to see what they will do about the case against them. This paper will give a brief history in gender based wage discrimination in athletics in general and then in soccer, give an overview of the case and give the point of view from both the U.S. Women’s Soccer team and the U.S. Soccer Federation, and an analysis of the ethical situation based on my own morals and what I have learned from class.
There is a long history of wage discrimination
Women’s Soccer team is suing the U.S. Soccer Federation for wage discrimination between them and the men’s team. The suit is being headed by five of the well-known players; Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Hope Solo. They have attorney Jeffrey Kessler who has much experience is setting disputes with in the sporting industry. He has represented players such as Tom Brady and Ray Rice in their disputes with professional leagues and organizations (ESPN,1). The suit is about more than just money. The team wants to be treated equally in all aspects of the sport. They want the same accommodations that the men’s team gets in things such as comfortable travel accommodations and to be able to play on grass fields; as started by Morgan “…we simply want equal treatment”. The players have constantly had to play on substandard, artificial turf fields. This is a problem for safety reason. The team has been advocating this through their social media, such as Hope Solo’s Instagram post of the turf field falling apart, and Sydney Dwyer’s tweet of her badly beaten up legs from the turf. Along with the social media attention in December of 2015 Megan Rapinoe tore her ACL while playing on turf (Blocks, 1). The women’s team is making their stand in order to win equal pay for the work that they do. The U.S. Women’s Soccer team have a potential to earn about $99,000 a year if they win all 20 exhibition matches, while the men’s team could earn about $100,000 a year minimum for just appearing in 20 games with the potential to win up to $263,320 a year if they will all their games (Fox Sports). The team also wants better playing