USWNT, USMNT agree to historic collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Soccer

For the past several years, Equal Pay has been a rallying cry for players on the United States Women’s National Team as well as their fans. Through many lawsuits and public statements, the USWNT have fought to receive compensation that was equal to their male counterparts. The USMNT showed their support by joining their side and offering to negotiate together in an effort to achieve equality across the board. Today, that goal has been realized.

This morning, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the players associations for the USMNT and the USMNT announced that they have agreed to a historic collective bargaining agreement that achieves equal pay for players on both senior national teams.

The two collective bargaining agreements run through 2028, which will encompass the 2022 and 2026 World Cups for the men and the 2023 and 2027 World Cups for the women. The economic terms include identical compensation for all competitions the two teams play, including the World Cups, and they ensure that the players are among the highest paid in the world. U.S. Soccer becomes the first federation to distribute World Cup prize money equally between their men’s and women’s national teams.

The collective bargaining agreements focus on four areas: equalization of World Cup prize money, identical appearance fees and game bonuses, having the same playing surfaces and training facilities, and sharing a ticketing framework. The USWNT and USMNT will be paid identical appearance fees and game bonuses. Players not on the game roster will earn an appearance fee for participating in camp. They will also get similar bonuses for performance in tournaments. For the World Cups, they will pool and share prize money from the 2022 Men’s World Cup and the 2023 Women’s World Cup, being paid an equal percentage. They will do it again for the 2026 Men’s World Cup and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

The two teams will also share a 50/50 split of their portion of broadcast, partner, and sponsorship revenue. This will also include revenue from tickets sold at U.S. Soccer-controlled home matches and bonuses for matches that are sellouts. The teams will also have equal benefits, including child care, retirement packages, match venues and playing surfaces, charter flights and hotel accommodations, as well as advanced notification of training camp and match schedules.

“The accomplishments in this CBA are a testament to the incredible efforts of WNT players on and off the field,” USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn said in a statement. “The gains we have been able to achieve are both because of the strong foundation laid by the generations of WNT players that came before the current team and through our union’s recent collaboration with our counterparts at the USNSTPA [USMNT’s players association] and leadership at U.S. Soccer. We hope that this agreement and its historic achievements in not only providing for equal pay but also in improving the training and playing environment for National Team players will similarly serve as the foundation for continued growth of women’s soccer both in the United States and abroad.”

“They said equal pay for men and women was not possible, but that did not stop us and we went ahead and achieved it,” said USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman. “We hope this will awaken others to the need for this type of change, and will inspire FIFA and others around the world to move in the same direction.”

It’s a monumental agreement for all sides, and one that will pave the way for equal compensation for women in sports around the world.