For first time, every player at Women's World Cup will be paid at least $30K US

A group of players across the globe asked FIFA late last year to increase the prize money for this summer's Women's World Cup. There had been pleas from the women to boost those funds before, but this time it was different.

The players not only wanted a prize pool equal with the men's World Cup, they also sought a guarantee that a percentage of the prize money would go directly to the players themselves.

While it wasn't true equity with the Men's World Cup, FIFA indeed raised the prize pool for the women's tournament by more than three times that of the 2019 event in France.

But more than that, soccer's governing body agreed in June that a chunk of those funds should be paid straight to the players — all 732 of them. Every player will earn at least $30,000 US, with the amount increasing the further along that teams progress in the tournament. The 23 players in the title-winning squad will each get $270,000.

That's significant for many of the players, who in some cases don't have club teams that pay salaries, are semi-pros or even amateurs. FIFA released a report last year that said the average salary for female players was $14,000 a year.

And not only that, the conditions the players will experience on the ground in Australia and New Zealand — such as travel and accommodations — are now equitable to those provided the men.

"We still have a ways to go, but having them direct the payments to players is huge — it's a life-changing thing for many of these players entering the tournament. Coming away with each player making $30,000 is huge because usually that money goes to federations and those players don't see any, or much of that money," U.S. forward Alex Morgan said.

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A $152-million