Equal Pay for USWNT?
The gauntlet has been thrown down, the question has been asked. In the wake of their World Cup victory last Sunday, should the members of the United States Women's National Soccer Team be paid the same as their male counterparts?
My unequivocal answer: No.
They should be paid more.
This is sports, right? And in sports, winning matters. All the USWNT does is win. They went 7-0 in the World Cup, allowing only three goals and defeating three of the world's best women's teams (Sweden, England, and France) along the way.
They US women opened the tournament by beating Thailand 13-0. That's not a bad score in football, but in soccer it's an absolute blowout. One sportswriter pointed out that the US women scored more goals in their opening game than the US men have scored in the World Cup in nine years.
Of course, that should be taken with a grain of salt. The US men's team didn't score any goals in the 2018 World Cup...because they weren't even there. When it came right down to it, all the US men had to do to qualify for the World Cup was to beat Panama...and they couldn't do it.
Now, no disrespect to Panama, but come on. We have 320 million people in this country, and we can't find eleven men who can play soccer better than Panama's best eleven men? That's ridiculous.
To qualify for the World Cup, the US men just had to be one of the three best teams in North America (including Central America) and the Caribbean. With the exception of Mexico (and maybe Canada, but they care about soccer even less than we do, what with ice hockey and the defending NBA champions and such), there's nobody who should consistently finish ahead of the USA in that group. Nobody.
So what happened for the 2018 World Cup qualifier? The US finished fifth, and watched the World Cup from their couches--the same place the women were watching it from. Under no circumstances do members of the US Men's National Soccer Team deserve to be making more money than the women.
In fact, at this point I have to wonder why the men are getting paid at all. The women just won their fourth World Cup, and on that same day the guys got shut out by Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals. Win a tournament, any tournament, and we can talk about your paychecks, gentlemen. Otherwise, I feel like the men should have to live on what they make from their regular professional contracts--which are almost certainly more than what the women are making in similar circumstances.
Be paid the same as the men? Pshaw. The women deserve so much better.
In short: Pay the ladies. They've earned it.
My unequivocal answer: No.
They should be paid more.
This is sports, right? And in sports, winning matters. All the USWNT does is win. They went 7-0 in the World Cup, allowing only three goals and defeating three of the world's best women's teams (Sweden, England, and France) along the way.
They US women opened the tournament by beating Thailand 13-0. That's not a bad score in football, but in soccer it's an absolute blowout. One sportswriter pointed out that the US women scored more goals in their opening game than the US men have scored in the World Cup in nine years.
Of course, that should be taken with a grain of salt. The US men's team didn't score any goals in the 2018 World Cup...because they weren't even there. When it came right down to it, all the US men had to do to qualify for the World Cup was to beat Panama...and they couldn't do it.
Now, no disrespect to Panama, but come on. We have 320 million people in this country, and we can't find eleven men who can play soccer better than Panama's best eleven men? That's ridiculous.
To qualify for the World Cup, the US men just had to be one of the three best teams in North America (including Central America) and the Caribbean. With the exception of Mexico (and maybe Canada, but they care about soccer even less than we do, what with ice hockey and the defending NBA champions and such), there's nobody who should consistently finish ahead of the USA in that group. Nobody.
So what happened for the 2018 World Cup qualifier? The US finished fifth, and watched the World Cup from their couches--the same place the women were watching it from. Under no circumstances do members of the US Men's National Soccer Team deserve to be making more money than the women.
In fact, at this point I have to wonder why the men are getting paid at all. The women just won their fourth World Cup, and on that same day the guys got shut out by Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals. Win a tournament, any tournament, and we can talk about your paychecks, gentlemen. Otherwise, I feel like the men should have to live on what they make from their regular professional contracts--which are almost certainly more than what the women are making in similar circumstances.
Be paid the same as the men? Pshaw. The women deserve so much better.
In short: Pay the ladies. They've earned it.
posted by Michael at
2:28 PM
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