THEY’VE COME A LONG WAY
Recent labor deals in women’s sports far cry from the past
WNBA players didn’t even have a contract for the first two years of the league’s existence. Not until 2005, after the U.S. women already had won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals, was U.S. Soccer contractually obligated to provide them with a meal when they were in residency. Even then, it was only on days with two training sessions.
In the last two years, players from the WNBA, the National Women’s Soccer League and the U.S. women’s national team have reached landmark collectivebargaining agreements that include significant pay raises — and, in the case of the USWNT, guaranteed them equal pay to the men’s team — and family benefits beyond what most women in corporate America have.
But they did not come easily. Or quickly. And they would not have happened at all without the women involved recognizing their value and feeling a deep responsibility to honor the work of the women who came before them by providing more for the women who come after them.
‘‘Girls and young women were made to feel grateful for any investment and any opportunity in their sport,’’ said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association. ‘‘These are the badass women of the W; these are the superstars. You’ve got to be super-awesome to be in this league, to be a member of the 144. Respect them. Honor them.’’
As the 50th anniversary of Title IX approaches, professional women’s sports have become an established part of the U.S. landscape. For the women behind those initial CBAs, however, the landscape was much different.
‘‘The women from 1999 that first unionized and did the first CBA, we would not be where we are today without those women who were willing to fight from the very beginning for those lunches, the win bonuses, for the livable wage,’’ said Becky Sauerbrunn, who has been at the forefront of the U.S. women’s fight as the president of the USWNT Players Association.
Though there are differences, the labor histories of the WNBA and the USWNT — and, by extension, the NWSL — are similar.
Because the WNBA was a single-entity structure when it began in 1997, owned and operated by the NBA and its teams, players had very little leverage. They signed individual contracts with the league and were assigned to a team, leaving them without the basic protections a CBA provides.
The WNBPA was formed in November 1998, and the first CBA was signed early the next year. After collective actions in 1995 and again after the 1999 World Cup, the USWNT Players Association was certified in 2000. The team’s first CBA took effect March 23, 2001.
Because there wasn’t a women’s soccer league for much of the first 15 years after the union was formed, the WNBA and USWNT players had different objectives in their CBAs.
For the WNBA, it was salary increases, of course. But the players also got year-round health and dental insurance, as well as maternity benefits and coverage for domestic partners, in their first CBA. They got guaranteed contracts, too. Free agency came in the 2003 deal.
For the USWNT, the priority was security. Because U.S. Soccer for years provided their only opportunity to play, they needed to secure financial guarantees and performance bonuses.
In the CBA that ran from 2005 through 2012, the women got yearly salaries and individual bonuses for playing in a World Cup or Olympic qualifier, making the final roster for either tournament and for finishing in the top three. U.S. Soccer provided a nanny on team trips, and players got 50% of their salaries while on maternity leave. And that aforementioned meal on days with double training sessions.
But the women also knew they weren’t getting paid the same as the U.S. men’s national team.
By 2016, both groups of women were ready to take dramatic action. In March of that year, Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging they were being paid significantly less simply because they were women. Three years later, the entire USWNT filed a federal lawsuit demanding equal pay.
WNBA players, meanwhile, had announced in 2018 that they were opting out of their contract early. They wanted a new deal that not only would reshape the league but conditions for working women everywhere.
The resulting CBA increased WNBA salaries significantly, with the league minimum rising $13,000 for the players with the least experience and the maximum salary jumping roughly $60,000 to $264,423.
Most notable, however, were the family-planning benefits. There’s a $5,000 stipend for child care and full salary while on maternity leave. And players with eight years of experience or more can be reimbursed up to $60,000 for adoption, surrogacy, egg storage and IVF expenses.
The USWNT, meanwhile, won their second consecutive World Cup — and fourth overall — three months after they filed their lawsuit. In March 2020, U.S. Soccer submitted a legal finding that argued the women didn’t deserve to be paid equally because male players are stronger and faster and their game is more demanding.
But U.S. Soccer’s attitude changed after Cindy Parlow Cone, a member of the 1999 team, took over as president. In February, U.S. Soccer announced it would pay the U.S. women $24 million to settle the lawsuit and committed to equal pay going forward.
‘‘Sometimes [progress] does feel slower than we want it to be, but we just keep pressing,’’ Jackson said. ‘‘Because we have to. That’s what the players deserve.’’