Oct. 8 (UPI) — Players on Norway’s national women’s soccer team will be paid equally to their male counterparts, the Football Association of Norway announced.
A new agreement, to be introduced in 2018, is believed to be the first arrangement for men’s and women’s national teams to receive equal pay. The men’s team agreed to a pay cut to equalize salaries devoted to the men’s national program, now at $820,000, and the women’s program, now at $390,000. The new initiative calls for $750,000 to be dedicated to each team.
It is typical, worldwide, for women’s teams to have fewer resources, including salaries, than men’s teams. Norway’s women’s team, though, is regarded as exceptionally strong in international soccer, a reputation its male counterpart cannot claim.
Tore Reginiussen of the men’s team commented, “It’s nice to be able to contribute. There is nothing about the results we have had in recent years, which indicate that we will [should] have so much more. Now it will be a more even distribution. We will be a pioneer country in this area.”
Members of the U.S. women’s soccer team have been campaigning for years for wages equal to their male counterparts, to the point that they once filed a complaint against the governing body, the United States Soccer Federation, with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Hope Solo, a star on the U.S. women’s team, commented after the Football Association of Norway’s announcement, “Equality is possible, ethical, lawful and the right thing to do.”
