Former England captain Steph Houghton has revealed details of the measly salary she earned during her time as an Arsenal player.
During her prime, Houghton was regarded as one of the best defenders in world football and hit the big-time, or so she assumed, when she signed for the Gunners in 2010.
Houghton spent three years with the north London club, playing a pivotal role in two Women’s Super League title triumphs as well as two more FA Cup succesess.
Despite her status in the game, Houghton’s seniority and skill were not reflected in a salary of just £4,000-a-year.
Her income had the potential to be boosted to the tune of an additional £5,000 on account of various bonuses, plus her work as a part-time coach and club ambassador.
‘I put them figures in the book because I wanted people to know where we’ve come from and where we are now,’ Houghton said in an interview with the Guardian.
‘Arsenal was the best club in England and that was their level.
‘Money was never really a driver for me. It was just about playing for Arsenal and winning trophies, but when you meet people that have got a lot more experience about what you should be earning, that’s when you think: ‘Right, things have to change.”
Houghton, who represented her country on 121 occasions over the course of a stellar 14-year international career, has spoken passionately about her fight for parity with her male counterparts.
The 36-year-old, who announced her retirement earlier this year, was also part of a group of that battled for better pay for the Lionesses, claiming that their England contracts at the time saw the FA only pass on two percent of the money they made to the players.
‘When I looked at what [England’s men] were getting for commercial deals that really opened my eyes,’ she explained.
‘The men and women play for the national teams of the same country and yet they’re getting 15 times more than us.
‘How is that fair? I got the bit between my teeth and I was like: ‘OK, we need to do something about that.’ That’s what I’m probably most proud of in terms of the stuff that we did off the pitch – to change how companies thought of us as athletes and to stop them taking the piss.
‘The fight for World Cup bonuses was a key moment. We were going into World Cups with no [financial] incentive, no chance of getting any prize money whatsoever.
‘But we ended up coming away with a biggish bonus for the World Cup in 2015 [when England finished third].
‘For girls who could never put down a deposit on a house, it was life‑changing. That set the precedent. It became a normal conversation that we would sort the bonuses out well in advance of the tournament.’