In October 2017, it was announced that the Norway Football Association leadership and the men who play for the Norwegian National Team agreed to provide the same financial compensation, regardless of gender, for players representing their country.
While the Norwegian women have consistently outperformed their male counterparts in international competitions, their compensation differential was substantial.
The solution came about in part because of the contribution of 550,000 kroner by the male players from commercial national team appearance fees. The contribution helped increase the female’s financial pool to 6 million kroner, from its previous 3.1 million kroner total.
REAL SPORTS editorial board chose this as the #1 Most Important Moment in Sports for 2017 because of the why wouldn’t we pay men and women equally for representing our country mindset of the Norwegians.
“Norway is a country where equal standing is very important for us, so I think it is good for the country and for the sport,” Norway’s players’ union head Joachim Walltin said (via the BBC and The Washington Post).
In contrast, the USA female players agreed to a new five-year agreement with USA soccer in April 2017 after more than a year of negotiations, which included the U.S. Senate siding with the players and calling for equal pay just prior to the 2016 Olympics. Despite filing a wage discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing female players got paid up to 40 percent less than men and were submitted to challenging working conditions (fields not ready for play, among other issues); the women failed to achieve parity.
The women did though negotiate two years of back pay for unequal per diems and better benefits for players as well as salary and bonus improvements.
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