While most respondents said their minds weren’t changed (40 percent) or offered no opinion (21 percent), more than one-third of the U.S. public said they now consider the gender pay gap in professional sports to be more of an issue specifically because of the U.S. women’s team’s victory in the World Cup. Four percent said they believe the pay difference in sports is less of an issue now.
Although the pay structures for men’s and women’s teams are very different -- characterized by Rapinoe as “apples to oranges” during a July 12 episode of Pod Save America -- the women’s team argues in its lawsuit against U.S. Soccer that female athletes are considerably underpaid compared to their male counterparts.
In the lawsuit, Rapinoe and other team members contend that if both teams played 20 non-tournament games -- also known as “friendlies” -- in a year and won all of those matches, female athletes could earn a maximum of $99,000, or $4,950 per game, while male athletes would earn an average of $263,320, or $13,166 per game.
The filing also says players on the women’s team each earned a $15,000 bonus for making the 2015 World Cup’s roster, compared to the $55,000 given to each male athlete for making the roster for the 2014 World Cup.
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