As an American, I am incredibly proud that our Women’s National Team has, once again, won the World Cup. As a compensation professional, I have had enough. When our country’s (and the world’s) best team in one of the truly international sports cannot be remunerated at least equal to a less-accomplished men’s team, we have the foundation of a problem that seemingly only compensation pros can fix. This article is not about facts and figures (there are links to those at the end). This is about what it takes to accomplish gender equity (and what that actually means) even after you have the facts.

If we cannot expect this team to be paid for their performance, how convincing can we possibly be when we claim that ANYONE is being paid for their performance? (I know, I know, some of you work at companies that have fixed this problem, but you are still the minority.) More importantly, if this is such a difficult thing to fix for a group of fewer than 30 women, how can most companies expect to fix pay issues for much, much larger groups?