The 2016 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Complaint In late March of 2016, five of the top players on the WNTCarli Lloyd, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunnfiled a wage-discrimination complaint with the EEOC. See Exhibit 2 for the text of this complaint. Jeffrey Kessler, who had deep experience with labor disputes in American sports, represented the players. In an initial conference call, Kessler said, \"The reality is that this team is more valuable to the USSF than the men's team has been. That's what the facts show. And they would be justified in asking for more than the men are receiving. But the first step that they are seeking is equal treatment.\"51 Sauerbrunn cemented that \"the decision to le was wholeheartedly supported by the entire team. \"52 The players argued that members of the women's team were paid significantly less than members of the men's team at all levels. Solo said, \"We continue to be told we should be grateful just to have the opportunity to play professional soccer, to get paid for doing it.\" She continued, \"We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships, and the [men] get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.\"53 The EEOC filing pointed out that members of the WNT would earn $99,000 each if they won all 20 friendlies, the minimum number of games they were required to play in one year. However, members of the men's team would receive $263,320 each for winning the same number of friendlies. Furthermore, for each game played over the minimum of 20 games, the women would receive no additional pay for a tie or a loss and would receive $1,350 for a win, while the men would receive between $5,000 and $17,625. The USSF also had different daily rates for covering the costs of the national teams at ofcial events: the women received $50 per day for domestic events and $60 per day for international events, while the men received $62.50 per day for domestic events and $75 per day for international events.54 Based on USSF data from 2008 to 2015, the gender gap in pay was worse at the bottom of the pay scale. The top-paid man made 15% more than the top-paid woman, yet the 50th-highestpaid man made over ten times what the 50th-highest-paid woman made.55 Moreover, the USSF's IRS filing for 2014 revealed that, of the top 12 earners, the only woman was Lisa Levine, general counsel to the organization, while five men on the national team were among the top 12 earners.5'5 In addition, Nichols noted that \"[s]eventy-five percent of [WNT] compensation, both last year and over those eight years, is directly related to winning championships." In order to keep pace, the women had to perform well, while the men were "paid just for showing up.\"57 The men's team had to play more games in order to qualify for major tournaments like the World Cup, but the complaint stated that the success of the WNT \"has meant and continues to mean that [WNT players] spend more time in training camp, play far more games, travel more, and participate in more media sessions, among other things, than MNT players.\"58 In three of the previous four years, the women's team had played more matches than the men's team, sometimes up to 50 percent more.59