# The Even Playing Field Act: What It Actually Does

This bill is about making sure that amateur athletes—particularly women and athletes of color—get paid fairly and treated equally compared to their male counterparts in Olympic and professional amateur sports. Right now, there's a significant gap in how much money, resources, and support go to different groups of athletes. This bill tries to close that gap by requiring sports organizations to provide equal investment, promotional support, training facilities, equipment, and compensation across the board.

The bill works by changing the rules that govern the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the national sports organizations that oversee individual sports like gymnastics, swimming, or track and field. Instead of just saying these organizations should provide "equal opportunity," the law would require them to specifically demonstrate equal treatment in wages, stipends, working conditions, staff support, and facilities. So if a men's team gets a state-of-the-art training facility, a women's team in the same sport would need to get comparable resources. If male coaches earn a certain salary, female coaches doing the same job would need to earn the same amount.

The bill also requires these sports organizations to submit detailed reports to Congress every year showing how much they're paying athletes, coaches, trainers, and administrators, broken down by gender and race. This transparency requirement means the public and lawmakers can actually see whether pay gaps exist and hold organizations accountable if they don't. The reporting would include median salaries, minimum and maximum pay ranges, and how compensation differs across different groups—making it much harder for organizations to hide pay disparities.

Even Playing Field Act

Speier, Jackie

Even Playing Field Act This bill addresses pay equity for amateur athletes and other personnel. It allows recognition, or continued recognition, of a national governing body of an amateur sports organization only if it provides equal investment, promotional support, working conditions (including staff support and facilities and equipment for training and competition), and wages and other compensation to all amateur athletes, without discrimination based on sex. National governing bodies must report periodically to Congress regarding pay equity. Each report shall include (1) the median compensation for amateur athletes, coaches, trainers, managers, administrators, and officials, disaggregated by race, gender, and employment category; and (2) the minimum and maximum compensation paid to such personnel, disaggregated by race, gender, and employment category.