How Norway’s women footballers secured equal pay
In July, Lewes FC became the first football club in the world to offer equal pay to both its men and women footballers. An historic move at the time and one which had never been seen before. Since then Norway has followed suit. As of October, they became the first national team to pay both its men and women teams the same wages. Another historic step forward. With such progress, is football finally breaking through the barriers of financial equality, and just how has it been achieved internationally?
This isn’t the first time Norway has been lauded for its gender equality. Last year, a report published by the World Economic Forum showed that on average, for every $1 a woman earned in Norway, a man earned $1.27. Overall the country ranked third in the world in the report, behind fellow Nordic countries Finland and Iceland respectively. By all means there’s still a way to go but its progress is telling, nonetheless.
Now the country is tackling its next equality issue: football. Joachim Walltin, a former Norwegian international and current head of the players union in Norway, says the progress made by women’s football as a whole means equal pay in the country was inevitable. “Women’s football is growing and some of our players are being used much more by sponsors and media,” he explains. “One of our players, Ada Hegerberg who plays for Lyon, was awarded the best European player. She received her award together with Cristiano Ronaldo and that got a lot of attention.”
Walltin believes the welcome increase in popularity of their women players meant that they had no choice but to seek better pay. “We saw that the timing was good to increase the money the national team would get from their marketing agreements because they’re used more.” He added, “The FA was supportive of this and in one of our meetings it was their own idea to make it 100% equal with the men’s team.”
And it wasn’t just the Norwegian Football Association who supported the idea. Walltin said, “The FA offered to almost double the amount for the women if the men’s team had a slight decrease in their money, so we checked that out with the men’s team and they wanted to contribute.”
So, what’s to stop this move being adopted across football? Walltin accepts women footballers may never be paid the same as men but remains optimistic that wages will increase. He said, “If you perform as an athlete and there’s money in the game, which we hope will get much better in women’s football, they should get what they deserve.” He added, “Norway were the first country to do it and it shows it’s possible, I think it will inspire more to do it and encourage more to increase the amount they pay to women.”
As a result, he hopes America will be the next nation to imitate Norway. “If the US and FIFA, where the revenue streams are very high in football, start equalling out and increasing the amount they pay to women football that will really make a difference. I hope they will follow next.”
