Bill would withhold federal funds from 2026 Men’s World Cup in U.S. unless equal pay for men’s and women’s soccer teams
Should the World Cup-winning women’s soccer team be paid equally to their male counterparts?
Context
Earlier this month, the U.S. women’s national soccer team beat the Netherlands 2–0 to win the World Cup for the fourth time since the competition began in 1991, when they also won. This focused much public attention on the American women’s players’ pay gap relative to the men’s players.
The women get paid less even though they won their World Cup, while the men didn’t even make the 32-team cutoff for their World Cup at all. The women’s final also earned higher television viewership in the U.S. than the men’s final did.
Plus the women’s team has huge stars such as Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, and Carli Lloyd — prompting the satirical The Onion headline “U.S. Soccer Federation Argues It’s Ridiculous For Female Players To Expect Same Pay As Huge Stars Like Daniel Lovitz, Djordje Mihailovic.”
What the bill does
A new bill would withhold all federal funding from the 2026 Men’s World Cup co-hosted in the U.S. unless equal pay is instituted for men’s and women’s soccer teams.
The 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. has currently selected 17 possible stadiums across the country, which will be narrowed down to 10 stadiums by the time of the actual competition.
The legislation, which does not appear to have an official title, was introduced in the Senate on July 9 as bill number S. 2062 by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).
What supporters say
Supporters argue the bill would provide equal pay for equal work — or, depending on who you ask, equal pay for superior work.
“I received a letter from Coach Izzo-Brown [West Virginia University (WVU) women’s soccer head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown] highlighting her worries that women on the WVU women’s soccer team could one day make the U.S. women’s team and not get paid the same as the men’s team. That’s just plain wrong,” Sen. Manchin said in a press release.
“The clear unequitable pay between the U.S. men’s and women’s soccer teams is unacceptable and I’m glad the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team latest victory is causing public outcry,” Sen. Manchin continued. “They are the best in the world and deserve to be paid accordingly… Help us get this bill passed and finally create a level playing field for all.”
What opponents say
Opponents counter that the pay gap is a function of the vastly different revenue streams for men’s and women’s soccer.
“It is true that the American women, who sweat and practice as much as their male compatriots — perhaps more, given their superior results — don’t make as much. But the women’s game isn’t as popular or profitable, which fundamentally drives pay,” conservative columnist Rich Lowry wrote for National Review.
“The total prize money for the women’s 2019 World Cup was $30 million, with the champion taking away about $4 million. The total prize money for the men’s 2018 World Cup was $400 million, with the champions winning $38 million.”
“This seems blatantly unfair, until you take into account the completely different viewership and revenue from the two events. FIFA raked in more than $6 billion from the 2018 men’s World Cup. The women’s 2019 World Cup has been projected, when all is said and done, to make about $130 million.”
Odds of passage
The bill has attracted nine Senate cosponsors, all Democrats or Democratic-affiliated independents. That makes the odds of passage low in the Republican-controlled chamber.
It awaits a potential vote in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
This article was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.
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July 20, 2019 — Article updated to reflect that the 2026 World Cup will be for Men’s teams and not the Women’s teams as we originally wrote.
