“I feel like it’s actually everybody’s responsibility to use whatever platform they have to do good in the world and to try to make our society better, whether you’re an accountant or an activist or an athlete or whatever it is. I think it’s everybody’s responsibility.” – U.S. Soccer Champion Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe and the rest of the United States Women’s National Team (“USWNT”) are still fighting for an Olympic medal in Tokyo—and victory in their equal pay lawsuit, which continues on appeal.
WLP proudly joined an amicus brief in support of the professional soccer players on the United States Women’s National Team and their equal pay claims pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief was authored by National Women’s Law Center, Women’s Sports Foundation, and law firm Selendy & Gay PLLC.
The USWNT is undisputedly one of the greatest and most celebrated sports teams of all time, of any gender. Nonetheless, the U.S. Soccer Federation paid players on the USWNT less than the male soccer players on the U.S. Men’s National Team. In the brief, which you can read here, amici assert that the district court made several legal errors in analyzing plaintiffs’ claims under the Equal Pay Act (“EPA”) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
While we’re in full support of the amazing players on the women’s soccer team, the larger issue is that the district court’s erroneous interpretation of the EPA and Title VII—and its endorsement of the blatant pay disparities here—threatens to perpetuate unequal pay and gender discrimination.
The issue of equal pay and related issues are often falsely framed as a zero-sum game between cisgender women and men, but the truth is gender discrimination harms people of all genders.
To that end, the men’s soccer team agreed that members of the women’s national team should have been paid more than the men’s team, and in a recent court filing argued, “The women deserved better from the Federation—and a lot more money.”
In general, the wage gap is wider for women of color than white women. In fact, today is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day of the year a Black woman, on average, has to work to catch up to the wages a similarly situated white man earned last year.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
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