News
Yesterday, the female US soccer team broke a World Cup record after defeating Thailand 13-0. Their performance was dubbed "The most lopsided victory in World Cup history" by The Washington Post, given that star player, Alex Morgan, scored five goals, and Rose Lavelle and Samantha Mewis both scored two points each.
Because of the nature of their triumph, people took to social media to lament the fact that these women aren't being paid as much as their male counterparts.
"What’s the pay gap between men’s and women’s US soccer? Cause let’s just say if it’s performance based these ladies better be making way more than the boys, and somehow I suspect that might not be the case," wrote NBC News White House correspondent Kasie Hunt on Twitter, while journalist Richard Deitsch corroborated "The USWNT have scored more goals today against Thailand than the U.S. men scored in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups."
Back in March, USWNT filed a federal suit against the United States Soccer Federation, referencing a "purposeful gender discrimination." A statement written by the team's defender, Becky Sauerbrunn, asserted "It is wrong for us to be paid and valued less for our work because of our gender."
Per the lawsuit, a comparison of the women's and men's national teams found that if each team played and won 20 exhibition games in a year, "female WNT players would earn a maximum of $99,000 or $4,950 per game, while similarly situated male MNT players would earn an average of $263,320 or $13,166 per game."