Compensation and Benefits package in US Women's Soccer: An Analysis

Traditional Project

Assignments/Projects/exercises Defined - All Projects/Assignments/Exercises are to be submitted using Turnitin

Compensation and Benefits package

Since this is a specialized HR course, the assignments are supposed to expose you to real-life problems. Keeping in mind the applied and experiential nature of the course your team assignment is a real case based in the USA context.

 In 2019, twenty-eight members of the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT) filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. Players sued in March 2019 under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and they sought more than $66 million in damages. 

The main complaints from the players involve claims of wage discrimination. The petitioners pointed out that men’s national team receives a $5,000 bonus for a loss in a friendly match, while women receive nothing for a loss or a draw. However, when the teams win, the men receive as much as $17,625, but women only receive $1,350. Further, in 2011, when the women placed second in their World Cup, they were awarded $1.8 million, split evenly among the 24 players on the team. The men's team made it only to the round of 16 that year; however, they were awarded $5 million. In 2014, when Germany won the Men's World Cup, the US team was awarded $35 million by FIFA, while the women received 5% of that for their Cup victory in 2015.  

Their claims affect not only their paychecks but also where they play and how often, how they train, the medical treatment and coaching they receive, and even how they travel to matches. In May 2020, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner summarily dismissed the unequal pay portion of the lawsuit.

Check the following links for additional background information on this lawsuit and context:

Judge Dismisses U.S. Women’s Soccer Equal Pay Case — Here’s Why (forbes.com)

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usaw/story/4071258/uswnt-lawsuit-versus-us-soccer-explained-defining-the-pay-gapswhats-at-stake-for-both-sides

Note: Conduct research to get information on the lawsuit and all other missing information (e.g., the Federation strategic goals).

Given the US-Canada proximity, assume that the Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Soccer Association contacted your team as external management consultants and in the initial briefing meeting, the CEO mentioned that he expects your team to achieve the following 3 objectives:  

• Lead and guide the federation in summarizing the US Women’s Soccer federation’s compensation case and outline the main issues with the policy (This is the problem Identification Section of the report)

• Is the US Women’s Soccer federation’s compensation policy discriminatory? Yes and NO to these questions should be properly supported with the analysis of the soccer industry and how the compensations are designed in the industry.

• Had this been a Canadian case - what compensation policies and practices—salary, incentive plans, and benefits—would help to produce the player behaviors federation needs to achieve?  (This is a strategic compensation plan section– hence you are required to create a Compensation Plan for the Canadian Soccer Association)

Write a business report in a logical manner for the Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Soccer Association

The report should follow this format

• Title page
• Executive summary
• Table of content
• Problem identification
• Body of the Report
• Very short conclusion (not more than half a page)
• List of references
• Appendix

Paper Requirements – Whether students have fully understood the paper requirements. If all requirements are satisfactorily met/fulfilled. Whether or not all questions have been answered.

Your report must be concise Maximum of 1600 words excluding the cover page, executive summary, and table of content, references page, and appendices.

1. It must be well-written, but in lay terms so anyone can fully understand your reasoning.
2. Your overall grade will reflect the strength of your analysis and the data you have used to write this paper.

Quality And Variety Of Sources– For your analysis to be robust you have to use at least 15 references – Google, Wikipedia will not be considered as authentic sources you will be marked down for using them. You can use company websites, Job Market analysis taken from Statista and other reliable sources.

Fomating-Your report must follow APA style of formatting, referencing, font style, line spacing, etc., must be used.

Since this is a team project, this should not look like different pieces of writing put together. The paper should have connectivity, good transitions, and coherence throughout.