The Gender Pay Gap Visualized

Source: Statista

The U.S. women’s soccer team World Cup win in France in the beginning of July brought the gender pay gap, in sports and elsewhere, back into the spotlight in the U.S. The team around captain Megan Rapinoe took home US$4 million, compared to US$38 million for the winners of men’s soccer World Cups.

Back in March, the U.S. team also filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, demanding that female U.S. soccer players get paid as much as their male counterparts. While the U.S. women’s team is the most successful national team in the world with four World Cup wins since 1991 and four Olympic titles since 1996, the U.S. men’s team didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup and placed in the top 10 only twice since 1930.

But this instance does not only affect female athletes. On average, American working women are paid 80 cents for every dollar that working men make.

For some ethnicities however, the pay gap is much larger than that, as data provided by the National Women’s Law Center shows. While Asian American women get paid more than the average woman in the U.S., Latina women, Native American women and Black women fare much worse.

Latinas get paid no more than 53 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men make. According to these earnings Latina’s Equal Pay Day is almost eight months later than for women overall. While the average woman in the U.S. would have to work until April 2, 2019, to earn as much as the average man, Latinas would have to work until Nov 20 to earn as much as white, non-Hispanic men earned in 2018. This date is Sept 23 for Native women and Aug 22 for Black women.

Sports Infographic

America’s Stance on Equal Pay for Athletes

Source: Statista

The U.S. women’s soccer national team successfully defended its title at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, but the team that clinched its fourth World Cup title on Sunday is still in the middle of another battle: that for equal pay.

In March, 28 members of the 2015 World Cup squad sued the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) over gender discrimination, arguing that they are unfairly treated both in terms of pay and employment conditions compared to the (significantly less successful) men’s soccer team. According to the suit, if both teams were to play 20 friendly matches over the course of a year and win them all, the women would receive $99,000, while the men would cash in $263,320. Those numbers are even more astonishing when considering that the women’s team generated more revenue for the USSF compared to the men’s team over the past three years, according to figures obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

While fans of women’s soccer are (unsurprisingly) in favor of equal pay for female players, they even chanted “equal pay!” following the U.S. victory on Sunday, where does the general public stand on the issue? According to a survey carried out by YouGov in cooperation with Statista, the majority of U.S. adults think that female athletes should be paid equally, with 30 percent of all respondents demanding equal pay for women at comparable events (e.g. the FIFA World Cup or Wimbledon), while another 28 percent think female athletes should be paid equally relative to the amount of revenue an event creates.

Athlete Pay Infographic