The daily business briefing: March 31, 2016

1. Women's soccer stars file wage-discrimination complaint

Five key players on the U.S. women's soccer team — co-captains Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn, forward Alex Morgan, midfielder Megan Rapinoe, and goalkeeper Hope Solo — are filing a federal wage discrimination complaint against U.S. Soccer, their lawyer said. The players argue that the reigning Women's World Cup and Olympic champion women's team is key to the success of the sport's U.S. governing body, yet its players are paid as little as 40 percent of what their male counterparts get. No immediate comment was available from U.S. Soccer.

The New York Times

2. Boeing to cut 4,000 or more jobs to reduce costs

Boeing on Wednesday acknowledged that it plans to cut about 4,000 jobs by mid-year in its commercial airplanes division, which has about 80,000 employees. People with knowledge of Boeing's efforts to reduce costs say the aerospace and defense company could end up eliminating as many as 8,000 jobs. "There is no employment reduction target," spokesman Doug Alder said. "The more we can control costs as a whole, the less impact there will be to employment." The moves come as Boeing's jetliner output is booming.

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Reuters The Seattle Times

3. MetLife sheds 'too big to fail' label

A federal judge on Wednesday rescinded MetLife's status as a systemically important financial institution. The insurer had been battling with the government since 2014 to shed its "too big to fail" designation, which the government gave to big banks and other financial institutions after the 2008 financial crisis. Institutions with the status are subjected to stricter scrutiny. The decision marks a setback for the Obama administration's efforts to step up financial oversight of the financial sector.

The Washington Post The Wall Street Journal

4. Employers added 200,000 jobs in March

Private companies added 200,000 workers in March, signaling continued strengthening of the job market, according to a report released Wednesday by ADP Research Institute. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for a 195,000 job gain. The revised figure for February was 205,000 new jobs. The average monthly gain in 2015 was 221,000. "The job market continues on its amazing streak," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

Bloomberg MarketWatch

5. GM wins second straight case in which drivers blamed defect for crashes

Jurors on Wednesday handed General Motors its second straight trial victory against drivers who blamed faulty ignition switches for car wrecks. The jury in a Manhattan federal court found that the 2014 crash of Dionne Spain's 2007 Saturn Sky on a New Orleans bridge was caused by an ice storm, not the defect that has been found in millions of GM vehicles. The trial was the second of six test cases that could influence possible settlements in hundreds of other cases.

Bloomberg