Salary and earning potential is based on the market for your services. Men soccer players have a market for their services and women really don't. US Soccer pays women soccer player more than any one else.
That said, I don't blame them for trying to get a bigger piece of the pie. Go on strike if you think it will work. Skipping the world cup will get people's attention. When there really isn't a better market for your services, then you just need to do what you can to get more money. The NBA, NFL, and MLB players do not have a better market, so they need to go on strike to get a larger share of the revenue.
But when they leverage the legitimate issue of unequal pay for women, it cheapen's the real fight. In the workplace, gender is not an indicator of the effectiveness of an employee. Men are not better executives or professionals. But men get paid more. In the sports world, its not the same thing at all....two completely different products. For the USMNT team, they are paid more because a market exists and they don't need the USSF to make a living.
Its great if they want to bring attention to the issue of pay inequality for women, but I don't think they should pretend that its what they are dealing with.
That said, I don't blame them for trying to get a bigger piece of the pie. Go on strike if you think it will work. Skipping the world cup will get people's attention. When there really isn't a better market for your services, then you just need to do what you can to get more money. The NBA, NFL, and MLB players do not have a better market, so they need to go on strike to get a larger share of the revenue.
But when they leverage the legitimate issue of unequal pay for women, it cheapen's the real fight. In the workplace, gender is not an indicator of the effectiveness of an employee. Men are not better executives or professionals. But men get paid more. In the sports world, its not the same thing at all....two completely different products. For the USMNT team, they are paid more because a market exists and they don't need the USSF to make a living.
Its great if they want to bring attention to the issue of pay inequality for women, but I don't think they should pretend that its what they are dealing with.