It was over a week ago when the story about wage inequality between the men's and women's U.S. soccer teams made headlines. On March 30, five members of the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) filed a federal complaint against U.S. Soccer, accusing the governing body of wage discrimination.
Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn and Hope Solo were the five players that filed the claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission citing that they deserve to earn an equal pay with their male counterparts on the U.S. men's national team.
The NBC Sports website released an article saying that members of the USWNT make over 40 percent less than the men's team.
"The TODAY show cited figures stating that the USWNT players could earn between $3,600-4950 per game while the USMNT players make $6,250-17,625 per game. Each USMNT player who makes the World Cup roster earns $68,750 compared to the USWNT players making $30,000 which is 44 percent less."
Time also wrote an article highlighting how poorly women soccer players are paid compared to men.
"In U.S. professional soccer leagues, women also trail far behind men in terms of earnings. The National Women’s Soccer League has a pay ceiling per player of just $37,800. That’s compared to an average of more than $300,000 and a median of about $100,000 for men’s Major League Soccer. Each team in the NWSL has a salary cap of just $265,000—compared to more than $3 million for men. "
This whole ordeal has shed a lot of light on the gross inequality in pay between men and women in professional sports, however, the wage gap does not solely exist in athletics.
In 2014, full-time working females earned only 79 cents per every dollar earned by men, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. With a pay gap of 21 percent that spans across the board encompassing almost every occupational field, it's nearly impossible to refute the idea that wage inequality exists between men and women. Sadly, though, the inequality goes beyond actual wages and encompasses a myriad of other work related benefits;
This passage from the Council of Economic Advisers Issue Brief from April 2015 as it reads on the website of the White House shows that the inequality women face lives in nearly every facet of the work environment.
"The pay gap goes beyond wages and is even greater when we look at workers’ full compensation packages. Compensation includes not just wages, but also employer-sponsored health and retirement benefits, training opportunities, flexible work arrangements, and paid family and sick leave."
While many possible explanations could be drawn out as to why women are paid less and treated considerably worse in the workplace, I think the answer is quite clear. For all of history, white males have been writing, enforcing, and benefits from the rules; This applies to the legal and political world as well as business as we can see from simply looking up statistics.
The 114th Congress, which is currently presiding, set a new record for the amount of women serving in office. However, that record is 108 women, which only accounts for 20 percent of the total membership of Congress.
Despite having a population and a workforce that is comprised of nearly 50 percent women, the United States government does an excessively poor job in representing them.
Women have also seen a poor representation in the executive offices of the business world, where only 14.2 percent of the top five leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies are held by women, according to CNNMoney.
The wage discrimination currently being exploited by the USWNT should remind us all of the bigger inequality that surrounds us. It's obvious that female athletes should be paid competitively with their male counterparts (especially when they outperform them on the international level). It's also obvious that females need equal representation for the spheres that they live in, and it should not be "up to them" to make that happen.
Inequality is often created by the few but can be changed by many.
