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The United States women’s national soccer team (USWNT) co-captain Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, who had helped their country to a record fourth FIFA World Cup title last year, criticised the US Court’s decision to dismiss their plea for equal pay.
The duo said they would appeal against the 32-page ruling by Judge Gary Klausner of the US District Court for Central California in Los Angeles who dismissed the women’s team’s claims of pay discrimination.
“This decision was out of left field for us. We are fighters and we will continue to fight together for this,” said forward Morgan on a remote live feed on the Good Morning America programme on Monday.
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The USWNT players – who have won four FIFA World Cups in comparison to zero by the men’s team – were left shocked and disappointed as they had demanded a back pay of USD 66 million under the Equal Pay Act.
But Judge Klausner dismissed the case on the back of the evidence which stated that the women had previously turned down an offer in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations to be paid along the riskier lines of the pay-to-play structure of the US men’s team.
“The history of negotiations between the parties demonstrates that the WNT rejected an offer to be paid under the same pay-to-play structure as the MNT, and the WNT was willing to forgo higher bonuses for benefits, such as greater base compensation and the guarantee of a higher number of contracted players,” Klausner wrote.
“Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot now retroactively deem their CBA (collective bargaining agreement) worse than the MNT CBA by reference to what they would have made had they been paid under the MNT’s pay-to-play terms structure when they themselves rejected such a structure,” he said.
However, the court in its judgment summary pointed out that the women were paid more on a cumulative basis. “The WNT (Women’s National Team) has been paid more on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis than the MNT (Men’s National Team) over the class period.”
Morgan’s national teammate Rapinoe, who had won the Ballon d’Or last year, questioned the logic of the judgment and said, “If I earn one dollar every time I play and a man earns three dollars, just because I win ten games and he only wins three games – and so I make 10 dollars and he made nine dollars – I’m not sure how that’s me making more money.”
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