It’s a big week for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.
On Thursday, a documentary about the team’s fight for equal pay — titled “Let’s F***ing Go,” the club’s unofficial slogan — premiered on HBO Max, just a day after the 2020 Olympic roster was announced.
Megan Rapinoe, Kelley O’Hara, and Christen Press were named to the team. Each is featured in the doc that follows the $66.7 million lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2019 for violating the Equal Pay Act.
The men’s and women’s teams have different bargaining agreements. The women are salaried with a base of $100,000, while the men are on a pay-for-play basis, according to ESPN.
- In 2019, USSF president Carlos Cordeiro released data showing women’s players were paid $34.1 million compared to the $26.4 million men were paid. USWNT representatives called it “utterly false.”
- Cordeiro resigned in March 2020 amid backlash over statements that the “skill” and “effort” necessary to compete on the women’s team was not equal to that of the men’s team.
- France, the men’s 2018 World Cup winner, was awarded $38 million by FIFA. The U.S. women were rewarded $4 million for their World Cup victory in 2019.
- Men receive $68,750 for making the World Cup team, while women make $37,500.
The U.S. District rejected the team’s claims of unequal pay in May 2020, but appeals are still in progress.
“I know these women won’t stop fighting,” Abby Greensfelder, founder of Everywoman Studios, the production company behind the “LFG” documentary, told Front Office Sports. “They simply refuse to back down.”
