From late July until Aug. 20, the Women’s World Cup will be at the center of the sports world.
Tickets sold to attend the event in Australia and New Zealand exceeded the million mark in early June, with little over a month-and-a-half before the start of the event. It already well surpassed the mark set by the 2019 edition.
If early ticket sales are any indication, the 2023 Women’s World Cup could also be on track to set new records in terms of viewership, which was already set at a high mark: over a billion in 2019.
But at the center of one of the world’s most popular events is the debate that has been raging now for years: how to appropriately pay the stars on the field. Players across the world have pushed for equal pay, with members of the USWNT bringing a lawsuit forward against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) in 2019. It accused the organization of discrimination in regard to the lack of equal pay between the men’s and women’s teams.
MORE: Women’s World Cup 2023 prize money breakdown
The lawsuit was settled in February 2022 for $24 million, and new collective bargaining agreements have helped the women’s team secure a more equal pay structure moving forward. However, that hasn’t changed the gap in the overall prize pool between the men’s tournament and women’s tournament, with this year’s Women’s World Cup featuring a prize pool that is exactly 25 percent the size of last year’s men’s tournament.
How much will these star players be paid for performing on the world’s biggest stage? Here’s what you need to know:
How much players make on USWNT
The 2022 collective bargaining agreements from the USSF will see the players on the USWNT receive significantly more than in past years. Under the new agreements, the USSF will take 20 percent of money awarded to each team, and pool together the remainder and divide them among the 49 players between the men’s (26) and women’s (23) rosters.
Last year, the United States men’s team reached the Round of 16 before falling to the Netherlands. That meant $13 million went to the USMNT.
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There is a new distinction in the women’s system, however: FIFA announced a new distribution model that will guarantee players a certain allotment before paying each individual nation. For example, if the U.S. women come in first, they will receive $270,000 individually, and then the U.S. Soccer Federation will receive $4.29 million. The $270,000 per player, along with the $4.29 million, adds up to $10.5 million.
The USSF will then add the women’s $10.5 million to the $13 million earned by the men to get a pool of $23.5 million. The USSF would claim $4.7 million — 20 percent — and divide up the remaining $18.8 million between the 49 players, giving each player roughly $383,673.47 for the total winnings.
“The global salary of women’s professional footballers is approximately $14,000 annually so the amounts allocated under this unprecedented new distribution model will have a real and meaningful impact on the lives and careers of these players,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said, per CBS Sports. “Beyond this, all member associations will also receive a record financial distribution based on their performance, which they can use to reinvest back into football in their countries and which we believe will help to propel the women’s game even further.”
Prize money for winning World Cup
There is a major raise coming to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Back in the 2019 World Cup, the purse totaled $30 million. This year, it’s an increase of $80 million, giving a total prize pool of $110 million. There will be another $31 million allocated to teams for preparations and $11 million to clubs for the players participating.
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The winning team of the World Cup will come away with $10.5 million, with each of the 23 players receiving $270,000. Here’s a look at how the World Cup will pay out individual players, as well as the money given out to each team based on how far they advanced.
In the case of the U.S., the player portion and federation portion will each be added together to go into the pool for the USMNT and USWNT:
| Per Player | Per federation | |
| Group stage | $30,000 | $1.56 million |
| Round of 16 | $60,000 | $1.87 million |
| Quarterfinal | $90,000 | $2.18 million |
| Fourth place | $165,000 | $2,455,000 |
| Third place | $180,000 | $2,610,000 |
| Second place | $195,000 | $3,015,000 |
| First place | $270,000 | $4,290,000 |
By comparison, the Men’s World Cup in 2019 featured a prize pool of $440 million, with a top prize of $42 million. In a video featuring all members of the Australian women’s soccer team, the team called out the major discrepancy between the prize pools for the men’s and women’s tournaments, with the men receiving nearly three times as high.
“Collective bargaining has allowed us to ensure we now get the same conditions as the Socceroos, with one exception,” midfielder Tameka Yallop said in the video. “FIFA will still only offer women one-quarter as much prize money as men for the same achievement.”
Professional Footballers Australia co-chief executive Kate Gill told the Australian Associated Press that FIFA is trying to champion equality despite the prize pools’ significant differences.
“They’ve got $4 billion in reserves, so they can afford to spend and equalize things now,” Gill told the AP. “So it’s a call to arms and also the players understanding that their power is in their collective and in their solidarity.”
MORE: 2022 Men’s World Cup prize money
NWSL salaries
Much like soccer on the global stage, the National Women’s Soccer League has undergone plenty of changes in compensating its players in recent years. A new CBA negotiated in 2022 saw the players receive a 60 percent increase in minimum pay from 2021 to 2022 and opened the door for free agency, which will help the players secure larger deals moving forward.
Players in the NWSL earn a league minimum of $36,400, with a total salary cap of $1.375 million per team, per Pro Soccer Wire. The largest cap charge is $200,000, though there are several players who earn more than that in the league.
The average salary, according to The 18 as of May 2022, was listed as $54,000.
Per ESPN, Trinity Rodman was the highest-paid player in NWSL history after inking a four-year, $1.1 million deal in 2022. According to AS.com, Alex Morgan signed a new deal with San Diego Wave that will pay her $450,000 per year.
