MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican Senate committees on Wednesday backed a proposal to create fairer pay conditions for women in sports by prohibiting wage discrimination over gender or other grounds including disability.
The bill, which must still pass the floor of the Senate and be debated in the lower house of Congress, would set a basic salary for women athletes in sports such as soccer, where men are typically paid far more than women.
The measure passed at a committee level with the support of the ruling leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and the center-left opposition Citizens’ Movement (MC) party.
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 Senate said in a statement.
It also applies to athletes with disabilities and prohibits discrimination based on other criteria including race, social status and religion.
It was not clear how the bill, if passed into law, would be enforced in practice.
In the top level of the Mexican soccer league, men receive an average monthly salary of 643,000 pesos ($37,185.47) compared with 3,700 pesos a month for their female counterparts, according to the draft legislation.
The statement from the Senate, however, also noted that the head of the Mexican women’s soccer league, Mariana Gutierrez, has raised concerns over the cost of the initiative.
($1 = 17.2917 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Tom Hogue)
