Equal pay is tough when it’s based on how much you sell

This week, five top players for the U.S. women’s soccer team filed a federal complaint claiming sex discrimination.

There’s a pretty big pay gap between male and female soccer players.

Related: Hope Solo claims wage discrimination

For example, if you compare veteran goalkeepers Hope Solo and Clint Dempsey as the website fivethirtyeight.com did, you find that last year, when Solo’s US Women’s’ team won the World Cup, Solo made $327,000. In 2014 when Clint Dempsey’s US Men’s team did NOT win the World Cup, he made $819,000.

Of course, we all want to be paid what we’re worth, but in pro-sports, what you’re worth isn’t determined by how much you win, but by how much product you sell.

And that’s the OTHER big gap. The Men’s World cup broadcast in 2014 brought in $529 million in advertising. Ad revenue for the Women’s World Cup match, even though it drew more viewers than the men and was THE MOST WATCHED SOCCER match in US history, only brought in $17 million. That’s just 3 percent of what the men sold.

FOX ended up selling discounted spots to “non-sports” advertisers like Clorox.

For some reason, the big sports advertisers aren’t convinced that the women’s soccer audience pays attention to ads. In fact, the biggest sales bump for women’s soccer was in 1999 when Brandi Chastain pulled off her shirt, and black Nike sports bras started flying off the shelves.

So, I wish the women luck, but it would also help if we all buy Nike sports bars and wash them in Clorox.