Published
2025-06-18 11:23
11:23
June 18, 2025
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After more than a decade of fighting for higher pay, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders have scored a major win.
Season two of Netflix’s blockbuster series “America’s Sweethearts,” which premiered Wednesday, culminates in the announcement that the cheerleaders will be getting a massive 400 percent pay raise.
Cheerleader Jade McLean told the New York Times that veterans will be making more than $75 an hour, up from about $15 an hour in the 2024 NFL season. Pay structures for event appearance fees are also changing. The specifics of the new contracts were not revealed.
In season two, the cheerleaders talk openly of fighting for better pay and even consider staging a walkout to put pressure on team management.
“Our efforts were heard,” said cheerleader Megan McElaney, one of a handful that lead the charge for higher pay, in the show’s final episode. “I get emotional knowing that I was a part of that. Dancers are athletes. They have so much value.”
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Last summer, pay was a footnote on the show. Dallas Cowboys Executive Vice President Charlotte Jones waved off the issue: “There’s a lot of cynicism around pay for NFL cheerleaders, and as it should be — they’re not paid a lot. But the facts are they actually don’t come here for the money. They come here for something that’s actually bigger than that to them.”
A pay raise for the Dallas cheerleaders could signal a sea change in one of America’s most gendered professions.
Cheerleaders have been suing their teams for higher pay since 2014, when Oakland Raiderette Lacy Thibodeaux Fields sued her team alleging a violation of state minimum wage and labor laws.
For the 2014 season she said she earned barely $1,000. Her lawsuit was followed by more than a half dozen others and a congressional inquiry, but ultimately little changed. Then came “America’s Sweethearts.”
“I’m thrilled to hear this news,” Thibodeaux Fields told The 19th. “Artistic talents and hard work should always be well paid. This is a well deserved raise!”