Equal pay for the U.S. women’s national team is, at long last, official.
The USWNT Players Association and U.S. Soccer officially signed the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that guarantees equal pay for the USWNT and USMNT at Audi Field Tuesday following a 2-1 victory over Nigeria. With USWNT players past and present having made the trip, the documentation was signed on the field.
Aside from the entire USWNT squad called in for this window, injured regulars Tierna Davidson, Sam Mewis, Kelley O’Hara, Trinity Rodman, Emily Sonnett, and Lynn Williams were also present for the occasion. The list of retired USWNT stars present included Emily Harner, Kristine Lilly, Lori Lindsey, Jill Loyden, current USWNT GM Kate Markgraf, Tiffany Roberts, and Bri Scurry.
The CBA not only guarantees both the women’s and men’s teams identical bonuses for performance-related issues, but will also see the two teams pool their FIFA prize money from the 2022 and 2023 World Cups, with the combined earnings between the two being split into two 45% portions (one for the USWNT, one for the USMNT) and the final 10% going to U.S. Soccer.
The path to this point was long, and often rocky. The USWNT PA sued U.S. Soccer in 2019, a suit that eventually ended in a $24 million settlement in February of this year. An acrimonious battle that saw Carlos Cordeiro step down as USSF president in the aftermath of language in the suit that effectively said the USWNT’s work was not as valuable as the USMNT’s ended in May, when the two sides agreed to terms, setting the stage for the ceremony in Washington, DC.
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