Blumenthal and Senate Colleagues Call Foul on Unequal Pay Between Men's and Women's National Teams

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution urging the United States Soccer Federation to immediately eliminate gender pay inequity, following the lead of U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who wrote to U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati in March to urge the Federation to ensure pay equity between its men’s and women’s national teams. These efforts follow a federal complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by five U.S. Women’s National Team (U.S.W.N.T.) members charging U.S. Soccer with wage discrimination.

“If equal pay for equal work is the goal, then U.S. Soccer is standing on the sidelines. A day’s work for a woman should be worth the same as a day’s work for a man, whether that work is in an office or on a soccer field,” Blumenthal said. “I am pleased to be joined by so many of my Senate colleagues today in calling on U.S. Soccer to correct a fundamental injustice and close an unacceptable pay gap between their men’s and women’s national teams.”

 The resolution was co-sponsored by: U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), U.S. Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CT), U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA), U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), and U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE).

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