As the U.S. women\u2019s national soccer team continues its battle\u00a0for fair pay, its\u00a0rivals north of the border just took a major step toward securing\u00a0proper compensation of their own. In a meeting in Toronto on Thursday, Canada\u2019s top\u00a0players officially created\u00a0the Canadian Women\u2019s National Soccer Team Players\u2019 Association. It is believed to be\u00a0the country\u2019s first union for female athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want it to be more stable for younger kids coming up, so they know they can earn a living-wage through soccer,\u201d Diana Matheson, a midfielder who played for Canada\u2019s last three Olympic teams, told the Toronto Star<\/em>. \u201cHopefully, they don\u2019t still have to go live with their parents into their 30s like some of us have had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The Canadian Soccer Association, which has denied the existence of a pay\u00a0disparity between the men\u2019s and women\u2019s national teams, pays the salaries of players who compete in the professional National Women\u2019s Soccer League\u2014reportedly between $7,200 and $39,700 per season. The CSA claims these salaries also cover players\u2019 appearances for the women\u2019s\u00a0national team.\u00a0Meanwhile, members of the men\u2019s national team are paid per appearance, supplementing their professional team wages.<\/p>\n The\u00a0formation of the union\u00a0in Canada follows the complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission\u00a0by five\u00a0U.S. players earlier this year,\u00a0charging\u00a0the U.S. Soccer\u00a0Federation with\u00a0wage discrimination. For appearing in\u00a0\u201cfriendly\u201d matches\u2014otherwise known as exhibitions\u2014U.S. women\u2019s team players are paid only for wins, while men\u2019s team players are paid substantially more,\u00a0regardless of match results. Men\u2019s team players are also paid for every World Cup appearance, while women\u2019s team players are only awarded bonuses for finishing in fourth place or better.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re treated like second-class citizens because they don\u2019t care as much about us as they do the men,\u201d midfielder Carli Lloyd, the 2015 FIFA Player of the Year,\u00a0told 60 Minutes<\/em> last month.<\/p>\n The U.S. team met with U.S. Soccer in October to\u00a0renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement, but the two sides have failed to find common ground. The 60 Minutes<\/em> piece also reported\u00a0the EEOC has expanded its investigation\u00a0beyond salary concerns, which will further delay a decision from the federal agency. However, the legal maneuvering has been successful in\u00a0publicizing previously private information about national team wages.<\/p>\n The Canadian Soccer Association has been more tight-lipped about compensation\u00a0differences between men and women.\u00a0Until now, Canada\u2019s women\u2019s national team\u00a0has negotiated for wages\u00a0on an ad hoc\u00a0basis, led\u00a0by veterans on the squad, including goalkeeper Erin McLeod, who plays professionally\u00a0for FC Rosengard in Sweden. The union opens new possibilities for leverage and legal action.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been driven by the money,\u201d McLeod told the Toronto Sta<\/em>r. \u201cBut, sometimes, it\u2019s almost like I have to close my eyes to it or else I\u2019ll be bitter. There\u2019s definitely big differences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the U.S. women\u2019s national soccer team continues its battle\u00a0for fair pay, its\u00a0rivals north of the border just took a major step toward securing\u00a0proper compensation of their own. In a meeting in Toronto on Thursday, Canada\u2019s top\u00a0players officially created\u00a0the Canadian Women\u2019s National Soccer Team Players\u2019 Association. It is believed to be\u00a0the country\u2019s first union for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}