This archive report was first published on 10 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.
The team's spokesperson, Molly Levinson, listed a series of grievances in the motion to appeal, which was filed in a federal district court in California and is part of a larger lawsuit for equal pay.
Levinson argued that the women are 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.
'Equal pay means paying women players the same rate for winning a game as men get paid,' Levinson said.
The US women, 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.
Judge Gary Klausner had dismissed their equal pay claim last Friday, saying the case was unwarranted because they had previously turned down an offer in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations to be paid along the lines of the US men's team.
