Mexico Backs Bill For Fairer Pay For Women In Sport; Details Inside

Mexican Senate committees have approved a proposal to create fairer pay conditions for women in sports and eradicate wage discrimination over gender. 

On Wednesday, Mexican Senate committees backed the bill that set a basic salary for women athletes in sports. Mexican Senate committees said in a statement that the bill’s purpose is “to protect the labor rights of professional athletes, as well as to establish equal base pay for women and men in the sports field.”

The bill for fairer pay for women in sport

The bill was passed at a committee level. National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), a major Mexican left-wing political party, and Citizens’ Movement (MC) party, a center-left Mexican political party, backed the bill at the committee level. 

The bill needs to pass the floor of the Senate of the Republic of Mexico and be debated in the lower house of Congress to become law. The bill also prohibits wage discrimination on the basis of race, social status and religion. It is still not known how the law would be enforced in practice if passed. 

Salary for men and women in Mexican soccer league

In the Mexican soccer league, the top professional football division in Mexico, men athletes receive an average monthly salary of 643,000 pesos. However, women athletes earn less salaries as compared to their male counterparts. Women receive an average monthly salary of 3,700 pesos a month. 

In Mexico, the salaries of women soccer players are very low. By comparison, male players earn a lot of money. 

The Mexican Association of Women Soccer Players (AMFpro) has been working on a proposal for a base salary for women and men soccer players. 

In 2021, the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE), the anti-monopoly commission of the country, fined more than various soccer teams for conspiring to impose a cap on the salaries of women soccer players. 

Meanwhile, the head of the Mexican women’s soccer league, Mariana Gutierrez, has raised concerns over the cost of the bill, if passed.