USA World Champions

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Does that validate the extreme variance between the two?

Companies pay their high performing salespeople more money, male or female. That's part of the principal applied here. And the above poster is also correct in that the two teams have entirely different pay structures. I think also the women get health insurance but the men don't since they get it from their pro teams. I do know for sure the women have to fly commercial while the men fly private, and the women play on turf and the men don't. The beef the WNT has with US soccer isn't just about salary alone but also investment, marketing etc.

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Companies pay their high performing salespeople more money, male or female. That's part of the principal applied here. And the above poster is also correct in that the two teams have entirely different pay structures. I think also the women get health insurance but the men don't since they get it from their pro teams. I do know for sure the women have to fly commercial while the men fly private, and the women play on turf and the men don't. The beef the WNT has with US soccer isn't just about salary alone but also investment, marketing etc.

And while the US women do get as many eyeballs on TV as the US men, internationally the women's game is a fraction of the size of the men's game. So all the tournament payouts, international sponsorship and TV/Media money is also a fraction of the size of the men's game. The only reason the US woman's team earns as much as it does is because it wins or at least places in all the major tournaments. If they have a bad tournament and get knocked out early, again, if they had the men's pay structure it would quickly become a financial nightmare for the women who do not have a large pro team contract to fall back on.

You also have the issue of the men being asked to go through a far longer and grueling qualification process for the World Cup, Olympics, etc where the women make it into all of those tournaments almost by default. There is very little money earned in those qualification processes and if the women were "equal" to the men, they would be asked to participate in a lot more low-bonus games instead of just playing in the world cup and some for-profit friendly's and cups.

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this argument is beyond tiring. No one really defines what equal pay is. watching a privileged few argue for an even bigger slice of a the pie is not my idea of fun. The areas where the USSF should be spending money on womens soccer are clear. this "fight" is a non issue.

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The pay difference have far more to do with the fact that the women are treated as employees with guaranteed salaries and benefits where the men are treated as hired guns that only get paid when they actually get brought to games.

The reason for this is that the men all earn their primary income from their pro-teams and can sponsorships and the USMNT money is only a bonus for them. If they only get picked for a game or two, or they get injured, they still have their decent if not large pro-contract money to live on. On the women's side, not all of them even play pro-soccer, and most of the ones that do earn minimal salaries. They cannot afford to put in the effort to be on the national team only to miss paychecks because they were sidelined for some games. While moving to a men's style pay structure would benefit some of the women, it would actually hurt many of them as well.

thank you mr. lawyer for the USSF. except that the players themselves in their last collective bargaining said they'd be happy with a deal that was pay-to-play and USSF rejected that. so your assertion that it would hurt them is not backed up by the facts that their player's union was happy to take that risk (and since it was negotiated in '16 or '17, would have been richly rewarded with all the W's they've put up and the WWC win).

TL;DR: ex ante the women thought they would kick ass; ex post they were right.

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And while the US women do get as many eyeballs on TV as the US men, internationally the women's game is a fraction of the size of the men's game. So all the tournament payouts, international sponsorship and TV/Media money is also a fraction of the size of the men's game. The only reason the US woman's team earns as much as it does is because it wins or at least places in all the major tournaments. If they have a bad tournament and get knocked out early, again, if they had the men's pay structure it would quickly become a financial nightmare for the women who do not have a large pro team contract to fall back on.

You also have the issue of the men being asked to go through a far longer and grueling qualification process for the World Cup, Olympics, etc where the women make it into all of those tournaments almost by default. There is very little money earned in those qualification processes and if the women were "equal" to the men, they would be asked to participate in a lot more low-bonus games instead of just playing in the world cup and some for-profit friendly's and cups.

uh, the olympics for men is effectively a U-23 tournament (with some U-21 (europe) or U-20 (s.amer)). but also, both men and women have a similar concacaf qualifying tournament for oly berths so not sure why you threw that in there.

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uh, the olympics for men is effectively a U-23 tournament (with some U-21 (europe) or U-20 (s.amer)). but also, both men and women have a similar concacaf qualifying tournament for oly berths so not sure why you threw that in there.

It's still not the same. And aren't there still players playing the U23 tournament? Some of which end up on the OLY squad?

For example, CONCACAF World Cup qualifying for the men are a minimum of 16 games, but could be as many as 22 games depending on their ranking.

The USA Women are automatically given a berth by CONCACAF to the World Cup, as are Mexico and Canada. 16 games is a hell of a lot more than 0 games, yes?

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It's still not the same. And aren't there still players playing the U23 tournament? Some of which end up on the OLY squad?

For example, CONCACAF World Cup qualifying for the men are a minimum of 16 games, but could be as many as 22 games depending on their ranking.

The USA Women are automatically given a berth by CONCACAF to the World Cup, as are Mexico and Canada. 16 games is a hell of a lot more than 0 games, yes?

Correction, the USA women are given an automatic birth to the CONCACAF Championships, at which point they then play up to 5 games. But that is played over a couple of weeks in a single tournament location where the men are playing more games over a larger time period with lots more travel as all the games are home and away.

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Correction, the USA women are given an automatic birth to the CONCACAF Championships, at which point they then play up to 5 games. But that is played over a couple of weeks in a single tournament location where the men are playing more games over a larger time period with lots more travel as all the games are home and away.

This is a prime example of why they are not "equal". You can say that both the women are playing in CONCACAF so that they should be paid the same. But the men's CONCACAF qualifying involves at least three times as many games over a much longer time period and involves a lot more travel.

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This is a prime example of why they are not "equal". You can say that both the women are playing in CONCACAF so that they should be paid the same. But the men's CONCACAF qualifying involves at least three times as many games over a much longer time period and involves a lot more travel.

But the men's team sucks

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But the men's team sucks

And that has what to do with the issue? The point is that it is not equal work so the complaints about not equal pay is stupid.

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USA World Champions

And that has what to do with the issue? The point is that it is not equal work so the complaints about not equal pay is stupid.

so i don't understand any of this BS and sounds all convoluted by many who think they know and many who wonder what they think is right?

Is pay based on work ethic?, hours training?, hours playing?, is it based on revenue generated?, is it based on performance and winning?, is it based on a contract agreed by both parties?...is it based on all? (if yes, what are the percentages?) or based on none? sounds like a hot mess.

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And that has what to do with the issue? The point is that it is not equal work so the complaints about not equal pay is stupid.

So, the men play more and accomplish less but make more money for playing more. In most jobs the guy that accomplishes more in less time gets rewarded while the one who continues to suck at his job even after all the additional training will probably get fired. Clearly, that doesn't apply to USA soccer.

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So, the men play more and accomplish less but make more money for playing more. In most jobs the guy that accomplishes more in less time gets rewarded while the one who continues to suck at his job even after all the additional training will probably get fired. Clearly, that doesn't apply to USA soccer.

The men are up against much better competition so it's not a matter of them sucking as much as it is that they are playing in a much more competitive environment.

The women are great, but they are the big fish in a small pond. It's not apples to apples.

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So, the men play more and accomplish less but make more money for playing more. In most jobs the guy that accomplishes more in less time gets rewarded while the one who continues to suck at his job even after all the additional training will probably get fired. Clearly, that doesn't apply to USA soccer.

If someone can dig up the average attendance and average ticket prices for USMNT compared to USWNT it might answer why the men get paid more than the woman.

I guess you would also have to total the amount of games the woman play compared to men to get the total yearly revenue for each of them.

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The men are up against much better competition so it's not a matter of them sucking as much as it is that they are playing in a much more competitive environment.

The women are great, but they are the big fish in a small pond. It's not apples to apples.

It's the Concacaf. The competition sucks as much as they do except for maybe Mexico.