Rapinoe leads the charge for equal pay
Two-time Women’s World Cup champion and Olympic medalist Megan Rapinoe may have retired from soccer, but her journey as an advocate for pay equity is far from over.
Rapinoe and her fellow U.S. women’s soccer team members became icons of the equal pay movement in 2019 when they sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender discrimination. Their efforts culminated in a historic $24 million agreement in 2022.
But unfortunately, that’s just a small piece of the gender pay gap problem. Sixty years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women still earn less than men in most jobs – making 84% of what men did in weekly median earnings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I wish we could have sued on behalf of everybody,” joked Rapinoe, who visited Cincinnati to speak as the chief equality officer of Trusaic, a pay equity tech company based in Los Angeles.
Disparities grow over time
When considering the cumulative effect of pay inequity over the course of a woman’s career, the impact becomes even more substantial.
The National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equality, estimates that women could lose nearly $400,000 due to the gender wage gap over a 40-year career. The discrepancy is even costlier for women of color, especially Latina, Native, Pacific Islander and Black women, who often are paid less than their white peers. For these women, the loss of lifetime earnings could amount to nearly $1 million.
To combat the gender pay gap, Ohio’s Hamilton County refrains from asking job applicants about their salary history. County Commissioner Denise Driehaus explains that this practice helps prevent discrepancies from widening over time.
“You’re always going in with a lesser salary if you’re a woman,” she said. “And then you always make a lesser salary, because you’re going in asking for a lower salary. It kind of feeds on itself.”
On the other hand, Rapinoe thinks salary transparency can be good for women in the workplace.
“When we want to brag about it, they’re public, and then when we want to hide them, they’re not,” Rapinoe told the Enquirer. She points to NBA and CEO pay as examples of oft-boastedabout salaries.
“I think everyone’s salary should be public,” she said. “The rest of the labor force should be able to know where they’re at and why.”
The only person who benefits from concealing pay information, according to Rapinoe, “is the boss.”
Teamwork was key
Athletes on the U.S. women’s national soccer team faced numerous disparities compared to their male peers. The men’s team not only received higher compensation but also enjoyed better treatment, including charter flights between games and access to more coaches and medical staff.
This is despite the women’s team winning four World Cups since 1985. The men’s team has won none.
“Everything across the board,” Rapinoe said. “The investment from an operational and business standpoint is always just dramatically less.”
This hindered the women’s team’s ability to reach a wider audience, according to Rapinoe.
“Obviously, we’re playing a game, but this is an entertainment business,” she said. “You want to sell and you want it to be commercially viable and successful.”
Rapinoe credits the participation and collaboration of the whole team in the federal lawsuit as a key to their success.
“It was the whole team, the whole time,” she said. “It was honestly the most amazing part of it all.”
And, she added, “it was on behalf of everyone.”