This archive report was first published on 9 May 2020.
On May 8, 2020, the US women's national team filed an appeal against a legal setback in their equal pay lawsuit, saying they are being paid less than the men even though they win twice as much.
USWNT spokesperson Molly Levinson argued that the team is being discriminated against because they are not getting as much as the men on a per-game basis, and that making 'close to the same amount' is not valid.
Levinson stated, 'Equal pay means paying women players the same rate for winning a game as men get paid.' She also pointed out that the argument that women are paid enough if they make close to the same amount as men while winning more than twice as often is not equal pay.
The US women's national team, who clinched back-to-back World Cup wins with victory at last year's finals in France, had based their claim for back pay in the disparities between prize money distributed by FIFA at the men's and women's World Cups.
Between 2015-2019, the women's national team received $24 million and an average of $220,747 per game while the men's team received payments of $18 million and $212,639 per game.
Under the current CBA, which was signed in 2017, more than half the women's team players receive an annual base salary of $167,000.
