The summary of opinions on this issue suggests I may be rather unpopular with this opinion, so I will include some of my thoughts supporting REAL actions that could lead to a significant reduction in the gender pay gap.

In case anyone does not care about soccer or the U.S.A. I will give a very brief background. U.S. Women's soccer is suing over the fact that U.S. women soccer players are paid 40%-70% of what the U.S. men's players are paid. My opinion is that this is a nonsense claim that ignores the fact that this specific example has NOTHING to do with the real gender pay gap.

First off, I do believe the world has a significant problem related to gender pay equality. The problem is systemic and cultural. The world can look to countries like Iceland, for specific examples of ideas that ACTUALLY reduce gender pay inequality. Things like required parental leave for BOTH parents when a baby is born. These types of actions can and have significantly reduced gender pay inequality.

However, paying 18 soccer players more money is clearly not going to change anything. But some will argue that it can act as symbol. I hope to show that that would be dangerous and flawed and is likely to lead to less support for gender pay equality as it massively confuses the issue.

Equal pay for equal work. Hard to disagree with that. The soccer player's "job" is playing soccer right? Well, is it? Is that why they are paid millions of dollars? Why aren't Professional Curlers paid nearly as much? This shows that sports stars are paid as ENTERTAINERS. Their pay is relative to the revenue they generate. Therefor, the women's team is not doing "equal" work. The constantly repeated "fact"
that the U.S. women's team "outperforms" the men's team, shows people's misunderstanding of sports. And just to be sure, everyone is aware that the U.S. men's team would easily beat the U.S. women's team...right? That last sentence does not matter to the point I was making, but further highlights the abuse of the word "equal".

The fact is that Women's World Cup players ALL earn a higher percent of the revenue generated by the event than their male counterparts. The Men's World Cup generates BILLIONS in revenue. The Women's World Cup might generate 100 million (the last stats I could find were from 2011 where the women's Cup generated $73 million {the Men's made 4 billion that year}).

When the revenue from the Women's World Cup is less than 5% of the men's revenue, why is it a problem that the women make only 40% of what men do? It actually seems unfair in favor of women.

I believe there are serious actions that need to be enacted to reduce gender pay inequality. I think sideshows like this do nothing but distract and give ammunition to those who call the entire issue a farce.

What does everyone else think?