Dear Future President,

I have played soccer for almost 13 of the 15 years of my life. I have practiced day and night trying to get better and better to hopefully one day make it on the United States National Women’s Soccer Team. However, I have recently learned that the women on this team have been shafted because the enormous wage gap between the US men and women’s teams. This growing problem has become public since the women on this team have taken a stand and proved to the world that inequality is still living with this nation.

According to The New York Times, the No. 25 female player made just under $340,000, and the No. 25 male player added to his salary about $580,000. That’s a $240,000 difference! That means that corresponding players on both teams, players that do the same about of work compared to their teammates, are being treated completely differently. And for what reason?

The problem is the two teams have different contracts. The women’s contract is salary based with game bonuses if they win, but they do not get any money if they lose. The men work on a pay-for-play system where they do not receive a salary if they are not called in to play, but if they are they get significantly higher game bonuses than the women. However, the men must be called in to play to receive money. However, what the men have that the women don’t is a professional club salary to fall back on. Having different contracts is not a bad thing, however they must equal out to be the same salary for same amount of work.

For example, if the men were to win the World Cup, which they haven’t, they would receive a $9.375 million bonus. If the women were to win the World Cup, which they have, they would receive less than $2 million dollars for their team. How is that fair? The women’s team has won the World Cup 3 times, while the men rarely make it out of the Group Stage or Round of 16. Why should the men receive more money than the women, when the men aren’t even winning and the women are?

Now people say that the men have a higher competition compared to the women’s team so they deserve more money. However what these people don’t understand is that recent trends show that the women’s team has been bringing in more money than the men’s team. So how does one explain that a team that is bringing in over three times the amount the men’s team does is receiving less money in return?

The United States is supposed to be a country that based on equality to all. A country where people are not discriminated based on race or gender. The wage gap in soccer is just one of the many ways women are being shafted in this country. So, what will you do? Are you going to turn your head and pretend like the problem doesn’t exist? Or will you do your part as president of this country and set a precedent to all by creating equality in other professions.

Sincerely,

Kate S.