(Bloomberg) -- U.S. women World Cup winners Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe say they would be paid more than three times as much for their achievements if they were men.
The soccer players fired back on Monday at the U.S. Soccer Federation, which last week argued that Morgan and Rapinoe, as well as Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn, couldn't represent other female players in a lawsuit over unequal pay because they earned more than the highest-paid players on the men's national team.
During the period in question, the women argued in a filing in federal court in Los Angeles, they played more games and won two World Cups, whereas the men's team didn't even qualify for the most recent World Cup tournament.
If the women had been paid at the same rate as the men, they said, Morgan would have made $4.1 million from March 30, 2014, through Monday, rather than the $1.2 million she made on the national team, and Rapinoe $3.7 million instead of $1.2 million.
“The notion that a woman has to work two jobs to have a chance to make what a male earns at a single job is not only legally wrong under Title VII and the Equal Pay Act, it is morally repugnant,” their lawyers said.
Read More: U.S. Soccer Says Women Suing Over Pay Make More Than Men
When comparing the four women's pay with that of their male counterparts, the federation highlighted their income from the teams they play with in the National Women's Soccer League, their lawyers said. The men's pay from their professional teams wasn't included in that comparison, according to the women's lawyers.
Morgan said in court filings that her employment with any domestic or foreign professional team is a separate issue from the compensation she receives for her appearances on the national team.
An attorney for the U.S. Soccer Federation didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the players' arguments.
In their March lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages, the women's team accused U.S. Soccer of continually shortchanging them despite their greater on-field success compared to the higher-paid men's players. Job conditions, including the types of surfaces the teams play on, their travel arrangements and how U.S. Soccer promotes women's games compared to men's, are also unequal, according to the complaint.
The four represent 28 women on the current team and said in a filing last month seeking class-action status that the group could top 50 “when accounting for absent current and former players.”
The case is Morgan v. U.S. Soccer Federation Inc., 19-cv-1717, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).
To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey, Peter Blumberg
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