Murray, Feinstein, DeLauro Send Letter to U.S. Soccer Federation on Equal Pay Lawsuit

Washington, D.C. – Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today sent a letter to the President of the U.S. Soccer Federation, Carlos Cordeiro, urging the Federation to address the persistent pay inequities between women and men on the U.S. National Soccer Teams. The Members of Congress expressed their disappointment that U.S. Soccer has failed to remedy the pay discrepancies, even after several players filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2016 accusing U.S. Soccer of wage discrimination. The Members also inquired to U.S. Soccer at that time about how U.S. Soccer was working to address the disparity.

“We are deeply disappointed that the U.S. Soccer Federation has failed to address the persistent, substantial compensation inequities between the women and men who play for the U.S. National Soccer Teams,” wrote the Members. “Despite assurances U.S. Soccer was committed to remedying this inequity, in a federal lawsuit filed on March 8, 2019, twenty-eight members of the Women’s Team allege that the situation has not improved. The lack of progress since we inquired about this issue three years ago indicates that addressing pay inequity is not a priority of U.S. Soccer.”

“The Equal Pay Act requires that employers compensate men and women equally for the same work. The Men’s and Women’s Team members perform the same job duties and have jobs that require equal skill, effort, and responsibilities,” continued the Members. “In addition, in recent years the Women’s Team’s successes, audiences, and revenues have far exceeded those of the Men’s Team.  Yet U.S. Soccer is still failing to compensate the Women’s Team equal to the Men’s Team. It is long past time for U.S. Soccer to promote gender equality and bring parity in pay and working conditions between the Women’s and Men’s Teams.”

A copy of the signed letter can be found here.

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