I was watching the evening news the day after the U.S. Women’s team had won the final round of the FIFA World Cup against Japan, when the reporters revealed how much money the Women’s team would be receiving. The Women’s U.S. championship was receiving $2 million to split amongst the team, compared to the Men’s Germany champions who received $35 million when they won the FIFA World Cup last year. On top of that, the Men’s U.S. received $8 million just for losing in the first round of playoffs!

First of all, why is there even a reward for losing? Secondly, why is it four times more than what the Women’s champions are receiving? Thirdly and most importantly, why is there a $33 million gap between the pay for women and men?

Although I am ecstatic about the Women’s U.S. team winning the World Cup, I think this issue also needs to be addressed. The Women’s World Cup was the most watched soccer match in U.S. History! More people watched the U.S. vs. Japan game than this year’s NBA or Stanley Cup finals. Hope Solo (U.S. goalie) tried to call attention to the inequality by posting this photo of fans.

Let me throw you some more facts to point out how unfair this is. The total payout for the Men’s World Cup was $576 million, while the Women’s payout was $15 million. Yes, you read that right, I am in fact not missing another number. $15 million compared to $576 million, that is absolutely ridiculous! It gets worse; FIFA spent $22 million on creating a film called United Passions, which I’m sure you have never heard of it. It was released last year and only has an IMDb score of 1.9 out of 10 and is also #16 on the Bottom 100 movies list, so obviously it sucks and was a waste of money.

Unfortunately the unfair pay does not only lie within the FIFA World cup, but domestically as well. An average MLS men’s player makes around $305,000. While the average for women is $14,000 and the lowest is $6,000 (how do these girls even afford to live?!).

Sadly, many other female athletes are in the same situation as the Women’s U.S. Soccer team. There are dramatic differences in prize money and salaries for the LGPA tour and WNBA players. The exception in pay difference is tennis, each Wimbledon singles winner will receive the same amount of prize money. Hopefully FIFA and other organizations will follow this lead and start rewarding each gender with the same amount of prize money.