Leahy Renews Call For FIFA To Provide Pay Equity For Female Soccer Athletes

Press Release

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday introduced a Senate Resolution calling on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to immediately eliminate gender-based pay discrimination between male and female athletes. Leahy first introduced the resolution in 2015 following the U.S. Women's National Team's historic win in the Women's World Cup. The team repeated the feat earlier this year.

"Equal pay for equal work shouldn't be a political football," said Leahy. "The women of the U.S. National Team, and all women, deserve to be paid on the basis of the job they do, not based on their gender. Equal pay should not still be up for debate in 2019."

The resolution, which calls on FIFA to immediately eliminate gender pay inequity, is cosponsored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).

In July, the U.S. Women's National Team notched its second consecutive World Cup win and fourth overall. Yet the team's award for winning -- $4 million -- is just 10.5 percent of the award given to 2018 World Cup winning men's team, which received $38 million. In fact, FIFA awarded the teams that lost in the first round of the 2018 Men's World Cup $4 million more in prizes than it will award the U.S. Women's National Team for winning the 2019 World Cup.

In 2015, Senate Republicans blocked passage of a similar resolution offered by Leahy.

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