[Harlow:] This week five of the U.S. Women's National soccer team took a hammer to the glass ceiling on pay inequality by filing a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about their own organization. Five of the teams highest profile players filed a wage discrimination action on behalf of them and their team mates against the U.S. Soccer Federation demanding equal pay for equal play. When you look at the numbers, it's not hard to understand why they're upset. Last year the women's national team earned about $5,000 per exhibition match. The men were paid nearly about four times that amount, about $18,000. When you look at the World Cup, the disparity is even more striking. The U.S. men's team earned $9 million in 2014 for losing in round 16. The U.S. women, who won last year's World Cup, they got just $2 million. On Thursday, women's soccer legend Hope Solo said this is not just about money.
[Hope Solo, Goalkeeper:] We continue to be told we can be grateful just to have the opportunity to play professional soccer and to get paid for doing it. In this day and age, it's about equality, it's about equal rights, equal pay, and we're pushing for that. We believe now the time is right because we believe it's a responsibility for women's sports and specifically for
[Unidentifed Male:] Right.
[Solo:] For women's soccer.
[Harlow:] Let's not forget the Women's World Cup final last summer was watched by more than 25 million people and that makes it the most watched soccer game in U.S. history. Men or women. Earlier this year I spoke with one of the big stars of the game, Abby Wambach, about exactly this. She retired after their World Cup win. She is not formally part of the lawsuit that was filed this week. I asked her what her mission is now post her soccer career.
[Wambach:] I think that where I'm geared towards now is just real, true equality and the conversation around it.
[Harlow:] Equality for who?
[Wambach:] For everyone. You know, it's not just a gender, women versus men. This is also a race issue. This is also a religious belief.
[Harlow:] When did you realize first that you weren't getting it as a female athlete star, that you were not getting equality?
[Wambach:] I think that I probably always knew that I wasn't getting it and I was always fighting for something and clawing. But when I retired, I kind of realized, whoa, I've been getting mistreated on some level. And it's deep-seated innate thing that we all kind of agree and believe in and accept. I was allowing myself to be treated that way.
[Harlow:] You mean being paid less.
[Wambach:] Yes, being paid less, being given less opportunity.
[Harlow:] When you and the women's team won the World Cup, you guys got nice chunk of change, $2 million, but when you compare that to the $35 million the male champions got in the World Cup the year before
[Wambach:] It's incomparable.
[Harlow:] Incomparable. How did you stomach that?
[Wambach:] Well, I didn't. I didn't stomach it. That's why I'm fighting. That's why I'm tking about it. That's why I want there to be at the very least a conversation around it. We were the most watched soccer game in the history of North America.
[Harlow:] Over 26 million people.
[Wambach:] Well, actually the number is even higher. Fox will tell you it's probably 31 million people, which is pretty amazing. And if you were to compare that to the men and also say it actually still beat any male game that was ever aired, that's a huge deal.
[Harlow:] Here's how you put it. Simply put, you said, enough is enough.
[Wambach:] And it is. I mean, at what point as a female are we going to keep letting this happen? And it's really scary when you're on the inside. I get it because I was there. You don't want to rock the boat. You don't want to lose your position. You don't want to lose your job. You don't want to lose your insurance. You have bills to pay. I get the level of fear that it's based around. But now that I'm outside of it, I can fight for the rights of the women that are still involved, who may still might have that that fear factor.
[Harlow:] In terms of the lawsuit filed this week, U.S. soccer has responded to the complaint and it has issued a statement saying, "in part our efforts to be advocates for women's soccer are unwavering. We are committed to an engaged engaging and negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement that addresses compensation with the women's national team players association to take effect when the current CBA expires at the end of this year." We will stay on this story and let you know what happens. From soccer to basketball, March madness, yes, it's almost over. But if you needed a little extra basketball before it's all over, look no further than this week's CNN hero.