Female vs Male Soccer Players’ Salary By Leilani Lagunes

Are both male and female soccer players paid equally? Is there a lot of difference between both salaries? Is this important to us? Well, this is important to me because I think it is unfair for women to earn less than men while playing the same sport.

According to research on BusinessInsider.com, both male and female soccer players are not paid equally. Men soccer players get paid more than women soccer players. The US Women’s National Soccer Team won first place against Japan in 2015 with the score 5-2. The US women earned $2 million for their win against Japan. Going back to the 2014 Men’s world cup, Germany beat Argentina with the score 1-0. The male German team earned $35 million for their win.

Based on research on PBSNewsHour.com, according to Laura Santhanam, five US National women soccer players filed a complaint for this massive gender gap in salary. , , , , and filed the complaint towards this pay gap in salary. This complaint was dated on March 29, 2016. This does not only involve the World Cup soccer players but all professional soccer players’ salaries.

According to Alicia Lorene Johnson, from the Bustle.com, two soccer players both male and female, are not paid equally and both soccer players have a lot of similarities. These two soccer players are and . Both of these professional soccer players are 25 years old and they are both on the US National Team. Altidore is in the men’s US national soccer team and Leroux is in the women’s US national soccer team. Both of them play the same position, striker, and they both are in their own club in the US. There is also a difference between these two legends, they do not earn equal pay. Altidore earns $6 million (not including sponsorships) and Leroux earns $60,000-$92,000 (including sponsorships).

According to Caitlin Murray from .com, in 2014 the men played their 20th world cup. In 2015 with the womenś world cup, the women played their 7th world cup. The Guardian interviewed Jerome Valcke, Fifa’s secretary general who quotes,¨We have still another [13] World Cups before potentially women should receive the same amount as men.¨ This means women have to wait in order to earn equal pay in the World cup. This matters because both

114 genders are playing the same sport but males earn more than females and the females are just watching the males earn more while playing the same sport.

As to the opposing side, no one is aware that this is a problem. There is no research found that people are trying to make this problem change. No research is found that people are making a stand towards this problem. In addition, no one is having a conversation about this issue. People should start talking about this issue because this is unfair. There is no reason why men should earn more than women.

I believe this is unfair for women to earn less than men. There should be a change against this gender pay gap. Both genders play the same sport, train, travel, and maintain their own health in order to play. There is no difference between them but men earn more.

When will the women get equal pay? I hope people recognize that this issue affects everyone. This issue affects everyone because who would say one gender is superior than the other? Who would sit around and just watch this happen while one gender gets paid about 18 times more than the other gender? What if you were a female soccer player what would be your point of view on this issue?

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