Football Differentiation in America: are women underpaid?

By V. Gonzalez

The differentiation of payment between men and women is a global issue which, unfortunately, extends to many jobs even nowadays. “In 2016, women’s gross hourly earnings were on average 16.2% below those of men in the EU”. And this problem has been going on for quite a while; it is 2018 and we still live in a world where women are underpaid and men are still considered to be superior. How much longer should this continue to be accepted and how much longer should we wait for this to change? 

In 2016 the USA women’s national soccer team demanded not only an equal pay but claimed they should be paid more than the men’s team. At that time, it was said that for the Fifa World Cup men’s champions won $35 million while the women’s champions only won $2 million. Moreover, in the US and in other countries around the world, men usually get a higher pay for their professional clubs, while women’s professional soccer still have a low income overall.

However, to talk about differentiation we need to understand how the payment system works. One major difference between the payment methods of men and women is the “salary-based contract”. Whether women win or lose the game/ match, they still get paid. This was demanded through past negotiations due to the uncertainty of the outcome of a game. As a consequence, the women’s national soccer team have a steady salary while men don’t. In their case, they get a bonus for participating in the game, though that doesn’t mean it is a steady salary. So, for example, if a player is not called to play in a match, they do not get paid. In theory, men are still openly constantly running the risk of not being paid for not playing in a game, but due to their very high payments, they aren’t strongly affected by this lack of steady salary available for them.
​
In conclusion, we can see how, despite the different ideologies involved during the payment methods of men and women, we can still identify a significant differentiation between the overall earnings of both teams. Personally, I find it shocking how, even in the twenty-first century, a sport as innocent as football (or soccer in the US) is still considered a “man’s” sport and thus undermining women’s ability to participate in it.