U.S. Soccer agrees on historic equal pay CBAs with women’s and men’s national teams

The U.S. Soccer Federation and the players’ unions for the men’s and women’s national teams announced historic new collective bargaining deals on Wednesday, achieving a long-sought dream of equal pay for the women’s team’s players that includes equalization of World Cup prize money.

The governing body and the national team unions have agreed, according to the announcement, “to pool and share a portion of prize money paid for the teams’ participation” in the 2022 and 2026 men’s World Cups and 2023 and 2027 women’s World Cups. Players on the World Cup teams “will be paid an equal percentage of the collective prize money paid by FIFA for the teams’ participation and performance in their respective World Cups.”

Once the prize money is pooled, the players will split 90% of the pot in 2022 and ‘23, and 80% of the pot in ‘26 and ‘27. U.S. Soccer will take the remainder for its budget.

When global soccer’s governing body gives out World Cup prize money, it gives a lot more to men’s teams than to women’s teams. For example, France’s 2018 men’s title winners earned $38 million from FIFA, while the U.S. women’s team that won the 2019 title earned $4 million.

This has long been one of the biggest talking points about inequities in the soccer world. U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone — a 1999 World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist — had pledged to do something about it, and now she has.

U.S. Soccer said it is the first national federation in the sport to achieve this kind of prize money distribution.

“I wanted to lead on this, and U.S. Soccer wanted to lead on this, and I am just so incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved,” Cone said. “I’ve been in this equal pay fight for over 20 years, first as a player and now at U.S. Soccer. And really, I want to give a lot of credit to both the men’s and the women’s teams and their P.A.s [players’ associations] — this wouldn’t have been possible if we weren’t able to get all three groups at the table.”

Cone emphasized her thanks for the men’s players’ association’s ability to see the bigger picture.

“This advancement doesn’t happen without the men championing this,” she said. “It’s not easy to give up the money that they’re giving up. But to know that it’s the right thing to do, and then to step up and do it, I think they should be applauded.”

» READ MORE: U.S. women’s soccer stars win $24 million settlement of equal pay lawsuit

Leaders of both players’ unions hailed the deal in equally strong language.

“I think what we’ve accomplished is definitely a landmark in progress when it comes to gender equity,” said women’s national team rising star Midge Purce. “I think we set a new standard of value for women in the workforce. ... I don’t know when or how or where this will unfold, and what it will trigger next, exactly, but I do think it will inspire a lot and push a lot of individuals and groups to push further on this.”

Walker Zimmerman, a likely U.S. starter at this fall’s World Cup, spoke for a men’s union that now has its first formal CBA deal in three and a half years. The men’s union was publicly supportive of the women, but many of its members often didn’t say much on the topic.

“When we got together as a group with the men’s players’ association, certainly, we saw that there was not going to be a way forward to a deal without equalization of World Cup prize money,” Zimmerman said. “And we looked at the numbers between the previous CBA [and] the CBA that we’ve agreed to now, and recognized that sure, there was a potential chance of making less money, no doubt about it. But we also believe so much in the women’s team, we believe in the whole premise of equal pay, and ultimately, that was a big driving force for us — to do something historic, do something that no other team had done before, and to really try and do this together.”

Zimmerman put it even more bluntly in U.S. Soccer’s press release announcing the news: “They said equal pay for men and women was not possible, but that did not stop us and we went ahead and achieved it.”

Both contracts have already been ratified by both unions and approved by U.S. Soccer’s board of directors.

— For friendly games, players on both national teams will earn the same roster appearance fees and performance payments, the latter of which are based on the outcome of the match and the rank of the opponent.

— For games in World Cups, players will earn equal appearance fees; and for games in all other official competitions, players will earn equal game bonuses. For tournaments in which the men and women’s teams both play (such as Concacaf’s Gold Cups), the players will split 70% of the prize pool evenly, and U.S. Soccer will take the remaining 30%.

— U.S. Soccer will share part of its commercial sponsorship and broadcast revenue with the players, splitting that pool equally between the men’s and women’s teams: 10% to each team when net revenue tops $55 million, and 15% if it exceeds $75 million.

— Both player groups will also earn a portion of ticket sales at home games, around $5 per ticket from 2023-26, and closer to $6 per ticket in 2027 and 2028. There’s also a bonus for sellouts that grants 10% of the average ticket price.

— Both unions’ members will get child-care benefits during national team camps. That extends to the men’s union, one of the first benefits the women’s union fought hard to earn, nearly 30 years ago.

» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer’s new $200 million TV deal with Turner Sports will put games on HBO Max, TNT and TBS

— Both unions’ members will get 401(k) retirement plans, with U.S. Soccer matching up to 5% of the players’ contributions to their accounts. The matching funds will come from the teams’ shares of commercial revenues each year.

— Both teams will get equal treatment in terms of venue quality (in particular with grass vs. artificial turf playing surfaces), charter flights, and resources committed to hotel budgets and staffing.

— U.S. Soccer is implementing new rules and protections to prevent harassment and other improper conduct, with player input. Specifics include the ability for players to report issues anonymously via text message.

By the nature of how the senior women’s team is set up, including its participation at the Olympics (the men’s tournament is for under-23 teams), women’s national team regulars will get certain extra benefits.

Those benefits include insurance, six months of paid parental leave, and compensation for short-term disability absences — not just injuries, but mental-health matters too. The group of players with access to those benefits will be chosen each year by national team manager Vlatko Andonovski, or his successor should he leave the job before the CBA ends.

In addition, women’s national team administrators have committed to scheduling camps as far in advance as possible, so that players can focus on their club teams as much as possible.

» READ MORE: How Cindy Cone won reelection as U.S. Soccer president in March