The USWNT has officially won its legal lawsuit to equalize the overall payments towards all professional soccer athletes, no matter their gender. For the past six years, a lawsuit has been taking place in regards to allowing the United States men and women soccer players to receive the same amount of annual and per-game payment. Officially announced to the public this past Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the soccer community has finally turned over a new leaf in hopes of appeasing the minds and lives of all of their fans and athletes.
“I think it was just extremely motivating to see organizations and employers admit their wrongdoing, and us forcing their hand in making it right,” former co-captain of the women’s national team Alex Morgan stated. “The domino effect that we helped kick-start… I think we are really proud of it.” During the spring of 2016, Morgan was one of the many female athletes who brought up the current gender-wage situation to her superiors, making the change that was created this past week all possible. The lawsuit has resulted in both genders’ pay being increased to approximately $22 million, along with an additional $2 million towards ‘charitable efforts’ and ‘post-career goals.’
Morgan seemed to be the loudest voice behind this specific change of income as she went on to make the following statement: “What we set out to do was to have acknowledgment of discrimination from U.S. Soccer, and we received that through back pay in the settlement. We set out to have fair and equal treatment in working conditions, and we got that through the working conditions settlement. And we set out to have equal pay moving forward for us and the men’s team through U.S. Soccer, and we achieved that.” As everyone seems to have gotten what they asked for, hopefully, soccer fans can also see the two genders in an equal light as the men’s team is still bringing in the most viewers and fans around the country.