Senate backs equal pay for female soccer players
The Senate is demanding equal pay for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.
The resolution, passed by voice vote, calls for the United States Soccer Federation to “immediately eliminate gender pay inequity and treat all athletes with the same respect and dignity.”
{mosads}”The pay gap between the men and women’s national soccer team is emblematic of what is happening across our country,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Thursday.
In addition to urging the soccer organization to pay female players the same as male players, it also supports ending gender-based pay discrimination and requires that a copy of the resolution be sent to the federation.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who is retiring at the end of her current term, said women “kick the ball around, but we’re tired of being kicked around.”
Democrats tried to pass a resolution last year calling on FIFA, the international soccer governing body, to eliminate the gender pay gap.
But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) objected, noting the Senate had a packed schedule.
“We have a budget to pass. We have a debt crisis to fix. We have an education system that needs reform. We have a humanitarian crisis in Europe that we ought to address,” he said at the time. “That’s what the United States Senate ought to be spending its time on rather than offering opinions and resolutions about a private international entity and how they should award prizes and awards.”
Democrats have rallied around the issue after a U.S. win in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, when the team received a $2 million award compared to the $35 million Germany received after winning the 2014 Men’s World Cup.
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