Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: USWNT Lawsuit Edition


Yesterday, it was announced that the United States Women's National Team ("USWNT") filed a wage discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation.  The players alleged in the lawsuit that they are paid almost four times less than the United States Men's National Team, despite generating almost $20 million more in revenue last year.  This is a huge story and one that continues to grow.  I will plan on covering it more next week, but in the meantime, I wanted to point readers to a few articles on the topic.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


President of United States Soccer Federation Responds to Lawsuit

Joe Prince-Wright has a good article in regard to a conference call yesterday in which Sunil Gulati, President of the United States Soccer Federation ("USSF"), stated that United States soccer holds the USWNT in high regard and would be willing to compensate them fairly when it comes time to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.  With that being said, Gulati pointed out that many factors go into determining compensation for male and female soccer players...thus why female players earned less than their male counterparts.  USSF's outside counsel, Russell Sauer, has noted that he was taken by surprise to find out the the lawsuit alleged that the USSF would not give the women's team equal pay.  Note, neither of these statements are official answers to the lawsuit...but it gives you an idea that at least on the surface, the USSF is willing to work with the women's team to resolve the issue.  Time will tell whether that is actually the case.
 

Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton Announce Support for USWNT Lawsuit

The two remaining Democratic candidates for President tweeted their support for the USWNT lawsuit yesterday.  This is not much of a surprise, given that these two candidates have continually advocated for equal pay over the course of the campaign.  Perhaps it is more surprising that none of the three remaining Republican candidates for President have come out in support (or opposition) to this lawsuit.  Given the fact that at least one Republican candidate, Donald Trump, is apparently having issues winning over female voters, his support of this lawsuit could go a long way to help him mend fences with this voting bloc.



SI has an interesting note on former United State's men's captain Landon Donovan who voiced his support for the USWNT.  In a tweet yesterday afternoon, Donovan stated that the "USWNT absolutely deserve to be treated fairly in all ways."  He followed that up with a tweet that stated "Both USMNT and USWNT should be paid commensurate w/the revenues they produce, not based upon what the other makes."  As noted in the lawsuit, the USWNT claim they brought in $20 million more in revenue last year than the USMNT...assuming the numbers check out, Donovan is in support of the women's team receiving additional compensation.  Given his high profile and stature as a former player, his support lends a great deal of credibility to the USWNT's lawsuit.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more