US Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone has written an open letter encouraging the men's and women's national teams to equalise the prize money from the FIFA World Cup.
This issue has divided the USSF and the players since the former decided they were unable to split the prize pot because it was under FIFA's control.
Parlow Cone has stressed the need for the men's national team to allow the USSF to reallocate payments equally and hopes a solution can be found sooner rather than later.
"As a former player, I want to once again make it clear that I, along with all of US Soccer, am 100% committed to equal pay for our national team players," she said, as quoted by GiveMeSport.
"We remain steadfast in our decision to ensuring equal pay for our national team.
We're focusing on demonstrating this commitment through action. As a federation, we would rather negotiate a single collective bargaining agreement with both the men's and women's teams, but since neither team has agreed to take that approach, we are moving separately with each Players Association.
The massive discrepancy in FIFA World Cup prize money is by far the most challenging issue we continue to face in our parallel negotiations with the men's and women's national teams. While FIFA has made some impactful investments in the woman's game, the discrepancy in prize money remains stark.
FIFA alone controls those funds, and US soccer is legally obligated to distribute those funds based on our current negotiated collective bargaining agreements with the men's and women's teams."
These developments come after the US Women's team sued the USSF in March 2019, claiming they had not been paid equitably under their collective agreement in comparison to what the men's team had received.
The women, led by Chelsea star Alex Morgan, asked for more than $66 million in damages under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Their argument was rejected in May 2020, with a judge ruling that the women turned down a pay-to-play structure similar to the one in the men's agreement and accepted greater base salaries than men.
The USWNT have asked to overrule the trial court's ruling, meaning a three-judge panel is expected to hear oral arguments at some point later in this year.
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