Hillary Clinton joins calls for equal pay for US women’s soccer team

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday joined the growing calls for the U.S. women’s national soccer team to be paid as much as their male counterparts in the wake of their second consecutive World Cup title. 

Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, tagged the official U.S. Soccer account in a tweet from the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia that said “EQUAL WORK DESERVES EQUAL PAY.”

CC @ussoccer https://t.co/l7wcpvY7uW

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 8, 2019

The U.S. women’s national team on Sunday earned their fourth World Cup title following a 2-0 win over the Netherlands. The team’s march to another World Cup victory led to renewed calls from the public and lawmakers for the women to earn as much as America’s men’s national team. 

{mosads}Following the women’s win in France, videos showed loud chants of “equal pay” reverberating from the bleachers. Multiple 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have also called for the team to earn more following their victory. 

Members of the women’s team are currently engaged in a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation, alleging the organization unfairly pays male players far more than female players. 

For example, each player on the women’s team may earn up to $260,000 in bonuses for their World Cup title, according to documents obtained by The Guardian. Under the men’s contract, each player could reportedly earn about $1 million if the club were to win the World Cup. 

Clinton has long championed issues related to quashing the gender pay gap. She criticized the U.S Soccer Federation’s policies surrounding compensation while appearing in a roundtable discussion with U.S. women’s co-captain Megan Rapinoe back in 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

During the discussion, Clinton noted that the women’s team had won World Cups and Olympic gold medals, while the men had won neither. 

“We noticed that our men’s team hasn’t yet done that,” she said. “Yet somehow the men are making hundreds of thousands of dollars more than our women.”