Transcript for Soccer stars speak out on gender discrimination
The U.S. Women’s soccer team is taking charge in major fight off the field. Suing for fair pay, this, just three months before they’ll defined their title at the women’s world cup. Stars Megan rapinoe and legs Morgan will joip us in a moment. Reporter: These players are amopg arguably the most famous players top planet. They’ve taken their fight to the next level. That’s it. Game over. The job is over! The U.S. Wins the 2015 women’s world cup zbhchlt. Reporter: They’re world champions. Alex Morgan, she breaks free! I’m faster. I’m stronger. I’m not what I was when I was 0. I’m better. Reporter: This morning, 28 member of the U.S. Women’s soccer team, including superstars Alex Morgan, Megan rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd, are suing the U.S. Soccer federation arguing that they have been skinly paid less than their male koupt Paras. Even when outperforming them on the global stage. The gold has gone to the United States of America. Reporter: According to the lawsuit, if each team played and won 20 nontournament games a year, female plays earn a maximum of $99,000. While similarly ranked male players would earn an achlg of more than $260,000. The lawsuit also high lyings pay discrepancy at the world cup. Alleging that the play was so skewed that when the men’s team lost if round 16 of the world cup in 2014, they received bonuses totalling more than $5 the following year, when the women won it all, they received less than $2 million. And overnight, U.S. Soccer released a statement pointing out that the women’s national team reached a collective bargaining agreement with the organization two years ago. Adding U.S. Soccer has faithly and consistently worked with the U.S. Women’s national team players an staff to provide the team everything it feeds. U.S. Soccer adds that their commitment to women includes creating two elite international tournaments and adding additional staff focused only op the U.S. Women’s national team. They say they look forward to enriching the women’s game today and into the future. Lets get right to it. Joining us now are superstars Megan rapinoe and Alex Morgan. Good morning to you both, ladies. We saw those numbers in Adrienne’s piece. You say men can mag more than double what you earn in a year despite you doing the same job. This is more than just pay equity. What over inequities are you talking about? Um, I think it is much more about pay equity. I thing obviously, that is the hot button issue. But in order to have, I think, a fair and balanced conversation around compensation, we need to look at everything. The way the youth teams are funded. The way our staff, our coaching staff rg our medical staff is funded. We need to look at promotion and branding and marketing and sponsorship. All of that. Until we do, until we have equity and equality of the men’s and women’s team on both sides, we can’t say, oh, the men make this, the women make this. We don’t feel like we’re funded equally from top the bottom. And that’s really what we’re fighting for. Sort of a holistic approach to both programs. Alex, what T do you say that to people that might suggest the men bring in more revenue overall and they deserve to be paid more? I think one of the biggest problems, as Megan pointed out, was the investment is not there from the ground up. I think it’s unfair to come the that conclusion without equal amount of invement among the youth through all three senior national team. Think that we also have — created a lot of revenue for U.S. Soccer throughout the years. And, you even saw from 2015, we had the most watched U.S. Soccer game in history. With the women’s world cup final. So, I think those — claims are really arbitrary. You have both said that this is not just about soccer and women on the field. Excuse me, that this is about standing up for — all people, particularly young girls. What is the big picture here? I think the big picture ultimately is just giving that message that — you should fight for what you believe in. You should fight for what you feel you earned. And never give up. It is difficult at times. Sometimes it feels like, um, a David and goliath type situation. Where you maybe have less resources or less experience. We know in our hearts. And we know with the facts that we have that — we’re on the right side of this. I think just looking sort of at the broader picture, I don’t think anybody can argue that there’s gender inequities in the that there’s a pay gap. That there’s discrepancies. It’s not only about leaving our sport in a better place, for if young girls that will come avenue, but just in general inspiring women around the world to stand up for what they believe in. They have an ally with us. We support them. We’ll continue the fight. If I could add to that, the men have also come out and said that, they are in support of us, as well. So we respect them so much for that. It’s great to see that support from them from a lot of our sponsors as well. From women all around the world. Both inside and outside of the sport. You know that you’re doing something right when you gained that support from people around you to help lift you up. One of the really big questions this morning for you both is the world cup. It’s just three months away. If this is not resolved, no expectation that it will be by then, H you boycott? I don’t think it’s ever been in our minds to step off the field. No. It’s always, we have been looking forward to the world cup for three year now. Even dating back to the collective bargaining agreement two years ago, we felt like what our goal was was equal pay at that point. What we got to without being locked out or striking was the agroemt that we made two years ago. It’s — it was progress. It wasn’t what he hoped for. But it was — this were gains during that process. So, that is continuing — that is going to continue to stay the same that we want to continue to play for our country at the highest stage this summer in France. Alex Morgan and Megan rapinoe, thank you to you both.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
