Poll: One-Third of 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Players Earn Less Than $30K per Year

The 2023 Women's World Cup featured record prize money, but that doesn't mean that the wage disparity problem in soccer has dissipated.

Per ESPN, a FIFPRO poll released on Wednesday found that one in three Women's World Cup players earn less than $30,000 per year from their national and club teams combined. The poll surveyed 260 World Cup players from 26 of the 32 national teams.

While that number does not include the pre-tax $30,000 minimum World Cup prize money that players were guaranteed from FIFA, it still illustrates the lack of adequate financial compensation for women's soccer players. The poll also determined that one in five players supplement their income with a second job.

The prize money for the 2023 Women's World Cup increased to $150 million, 10 times what it was in 2015 and three times what it was in 2019. It was also the first year that the total prize money was guaranteed to go to the players. However, that number is still nowhere near the $440 million prize pool for the Men's World Cup last year.

"The players gave everything they had to put on a brilliant World Cup, but there are still important gaps that need addressing," said Sarah Gregorius, FIFPRO's director of policy and strategic relations for women's football.

There are still some players who have yet to receive the money guaranteed by FIFA due to things like payment schedules in their respective home countries, but Gregorius said FIFA was working with them to resolve the delay.

"A lot of players have been paid and we're getting a lot of feedback on how life-changing this is for them, and at the end of this hopefully we're in a position to say 100 percent of the players have been paid [and that] it's really shifted the needle when it comes to compensation, gender equity and pay equity in football more broadly and in sport more broadly," Gregorius said.