Five star soccer players from the U.S. Women's National Team filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Thursday, accusing U.S. Soccer of wage discrimination.
Co-captains Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn, forward Alex Morgan, midfielder Megan Rapinoe and goalkeeper Hope Solo said in the complaint that players on the women's team are paid far less than their counterparts on the men’s national team.
"I think the timing is right,'' Lloyd said on NBC's "Today" show. "I think that we've proven our worth over the years. Just coming off of a World Cup win, the pay disparity between the men and women is just too large. And we want to continue to fight."
When the USWNT won international soccer's most prestigious event, the World Cup, in 2015, the team earned $2 million in prize money that was given to the national federation to be distributed to the players and the organization. Meanwhile, the men's team, which lost in the World Cup's Round of 16, earned $9 million. The men's team that won the tournament, Germany, earned $35 million.