It's in the best interest of both U.S. Soccer and the USWNT to find a common, sensible ground on equal pay going forward. (Photo by John Todd/isiphotos.com/Getty Images)

What is equal pay in international soccer?

If there were an easy answer to that question, the lawsuit between the U.S. Soccer Federation and the U.S. women’s national team would’ve been settled by now. Instead, with increasingly harsh rhetoric flying around, the issue seems headed for a trial in May.

The concept of “equal pay” is pretty simple: equal pay for equal work. In most fields, it’s not any more complicated than that.

But for two national soccer teams that want different things, play different schedules, are eligible for different tournaments and receive different prize money, the details become much harder to pin down.

Why there’s not already ‘equal pay’

The USWNT and the USMNT have never been paid equally. That’s because, with good reason, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams are paid through different compensation models.

While the USMNT is paid based on call-ups, game appearances and win bonuses, most USWNT players get paid salaries. That’s what the separate collective bargaining units for the USWNT and the USMNT fought for.

The women prioritized stability, while the men opted for a bonus structure that was more of a gamble for each player.

In the USWNT’s collective bargaining agreement, 17 players this year are on contracts to earn $100,000 salaries. The players without contracts earn $3,500 per game, plus small fees for being called into camp. All USWNT players, on contract or not, earn win bonuses up to $8,500 per friendly and, on the other end of the spectrum, up to $110,000 each for winning a World Cup.

None of the USMNT players, meanwhile, earn salaries. Instead, they can earn bonuses up to $17,625 per friendly and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, more than $1 million each if they win a World Cup.

The reason the USWNT prioritized a guaranteed income is beyond the players’ control and has more to do with the world we live in.

Players on the USMNT make their livings playing club soccer because there is a long-established and well-resourced infrastructure around the men’s game.

Michael Bradley, for instance, was the top-paid USMNT player over a six-year period from 2014 to 2019, and he made around $1 million total on national team duty in that time. Toronto FC, meanwhile, paid Bradley more than $6 million each year, rendering the USMNT a tiny fraction of his overall income.

The opportunities to make a living in women’s club soccer, by comparison, have been virtually non-existent throughout most of the USWNT’s history.

Women’s soccer was banned around the world up until relatively recently. In England, it was effectively banned until 1971. In Brazil, it was banned until around 1981. In Germany, women were finally allowed to play in 1970. It’s no surprise that the investment in the women’s game lags so far behind when women’s soccer was illegal for so long.

When the USWNT’s current pay structure of guaranteed salaries was designed in 2005 and U.S. Soccer agreed to it, there was no league for the women to play in. If U.S. Soccer didn’t pay them salaries, many players would’ve had to quit.

“I think it’s OK that the compensation structures are a little bit different,” Megan Rapinoe said on the Today Show last year. “Our realities are a little bit different.”

Indeed, the different payment structure for the USWNT — a model that is not “equal pay” — has been a historical necessity rather than some sort of benefit.

So, what would equal pay look like?

Now that it’s established how and why the USWNT and USMNT are paid differently, the question becomes how can it be made equal?

One looming problem is that the U.S. men and women have different four-year cycles, during which they play a different number of games and compete in different tournaments, which means male and female players will never qualify for the same income in a calendar year.

Equal pay would have to refer to an equal pay rate, which is something the USWNT argues for in its legal documents. U.S. Soccer claims it has actually paid the women more than it has paid the men, but the USWNT argues that’s only because the women worked more and the USWNT’s pay rate is lower.

But finding an equal pay rate for both teams shouldn’t be that difficult.

While USWNT players earn guaranteed payment through their $100,000 salaries, the men do get some guaranteed income, just in a different form. Because USMNT players earn $5,000 per game appearance, in a 20-game year, U.S. Soccer would be paying the equivalent of $100,000 salaries anyway.