Father’s Day 2019
On Father’s Day, there should be a reminder that many fathers are seeing their daughters go to work and those women are still not being paid the same amount of money in their jobs in comparison with men. All people have to do is look at the Women’s 2019 Soccer World Cup in France. The tournament is drawing a good number of eyeballs to TV screens and interest in the event is high. The problem is the lopsided pay scale. In 2018, FIFA paid $400 million in salaries or bonus money to the men competing in the Russia World Cup tournament. In 2019, FIFA is paying $30 million in salaries or bonus money to the women. The Professional Footballers of Australia and FifPro are pushing to cut the pay gender gap. In 2018, the World Cup winning team from France split $38 million. In 2015, the American women’s team won the World Cup and split a $2 million winning share. This year, the women’s World Cup winner will split $4 million. In 2022, in Qatar, the men’s World Cup winner will take home ever more money as $440 million has been allocated in prize money. The Professional Footballers Australia group asked for $57 million in prize money for this year’s woman event. The group was rebuffed.
If the Australian women were to win the 2019 tournament, the team would get half the money that a defeated Australian men’s team received in the 2018 World Cup. Pay inequity is nothing new. In 1968, Billie Jean King took home 750 pounds winning the Wimbledon title, while men’s winner Rod Laver got 2,000 pounds. The 1968 Wimbledon pay out was 14,800 pounds for men and 5,680 pounds for women. King threatened to boycott the 1973 US Open if women did not get equal pay. The US Open gave out equal prize money. The fight continues.
