United States women's team file appeal against equal pay rejection

The United States women’s football team have filed an appeal against a decision by a district judge to reject their equal pay claim against US Soccer.

Reigning Women’s Ballon d’Or winner Megan Rapinoe and her World Cup-winning team-mates were left “shocked” when judge Gary Klausner ruled the pay case did not warrant a trial, though their allegation of discriminatory working conditions – covering travel, training, housing and other areas – will go to trial on June 16.

The court ruled that the world champions were paid more on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis than their male counterparts, who failed to qualify for the last World Cup.

On Friday, the women’s team – who are demanding more than $66 million (£52 million) in back pay under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act – said via a spokesperson that they are “filing a motion to allow us to appeal immediately the district court’s decision so that the Ninth Circuit will be able to review these claims”.

Molly Levinson, a spokesperson for the players, said: “Equal pay means paying women players the same rate for winning a game as men get paid. The argument that women are paid enough if they make close to the same amount as men while winning more than twice as often is not equal pay.

“The argument that maternity leave is some sort of substitute for paying women players the same rate for winning as men is not valid, nor fair, nor equal. The argument that women gave up a right to equal pay by accepting the best collective bargaining agreement possible in response to the federation’s refusal to put equal pay on the table is not a legitimate reason for continuing to discriminate against them.

“Today, we are filing a motion to allow us to appeal immediately the district court’s decision so that the Ninth Circuit will be able to review these claims.”

The US team have commanded support from athletes including Billie Jean King during their long-running feud with the US federation. The dispute took a particularly unsavoury turn last month when US Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro resigned over language used in a court filing suggesting women possess less footballing ability than men, prompting a protest from players, who wore their warm-up jerseys inside out to obscure the US Soccer logo, and a backlash from several sponsors.

The women’s national team beat Holland to claim their fourth World Cup title last summer, after which the stadium rang with chants of “Equal Pay, Equal Pay”.

On May 4, the US National Soccer Team Players Association – the labour organisation for members of the US men’s national team, issued a statement of support for their female counterparts.

“The USMNT players continue to stand with the WNT players in their efforts to secure equal pay,” it read. “For a year and half the USWNT players have made proposals to the federation that would achieve equal pay for the USMNT and USWNT players. We understand the WNT players plan to appeal last week’s decision and we support them.”