Did you know that there is a huge difference between the amount of money that the U.S. women's national soccer team and men’s team make? You could argue that there are glaring disparities between all men and women’s sports; the NBA versus the WNBA is a huge example. But according to USSF's 2015 financial report, the women’s team actually brought in a whopping $20 million more than the men’s team. Yet the women continue to make four times less than the men.

For example, if the women’s team emerged victorious after 20 friendlies, they would make $99,000. For the same work, the men’s team would receive $263,320. The men get paid $5,000 and $17,625 for any extra games that they end up playing as well, although the women do not receive additional pay. What’s more, when the women’s team won the World Cup last year they received $2 million, while the men were given $9 million when they didn’t even win. This is a huge difference, and even if the women weren’t bringing in so much more money than the men, they should be compensated fairly no matter what.

In response to this gross imbalance, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan and two more members of the U.S. women's national soccer team have filed a wage-discrimination action against the U.S. Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Most people are backing the women’s call for equal pay, even Hillary Clinton, who tweeted, “Wouldn’t want to face these women on the field or in the courtroom. Every woman deserves equal pay.” Clinton is on point when she alludes to how fierce these athletes are and while none of us would like to face them in the courtroom or maybe on the field, we should surely be at their side in either place.

Solo said, “"We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the [men] get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.” She is not wrong. What do you think, Sounders fans? Are you behind the U.S. women’s team in their demand for equal pay? Some might argue that athletes are already overpaid in general, but even if that’s the stance you want to take, the disparity between the sexes remains. Should the men’s team simply receive a hefty cut to make the their income the same as the women’s team?

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia