Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Win Major Pay Raise After Years of Underpayment originally appeared on L.A. Mag.
12 August 2019: Helmets of the Dallas Cowboys during day 12 of training camp at City of Oxnard Fields in Oxnard, California. Photo by James D. Smith/Dallas CowboysPhoto by James D. Smith/Dallas Cowboys
The second season of “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” premiered on Netflix a few days ago, with the season’s finale revealing a 400% pay raise for the dedicated and iconic group of dancers.
The docuseries follows the dancers throughout their audition process to the end of the NFL season. On this season of “America’s Sweethearts,” the dancers were also followed in their fight for better pay, sparking conversation about pay discrimination that many NFL cheerleading teams have faced.
When the team first started in the 1970s, the DCC was advertised as a part-time gig, requiring only a few practices during the week and a Sunday game-time performance.
Today, the cheerleaders are working 30 to 40 hours a week. With grueling hours, endless practices, shows, and appearances, the DCC team is passionately committed. Despite endless amounts of people profiting off of the Sweethearts’ image, their pay was previously $15 an hour and $500 for each appearance. Most girls supported themselves with other jobs and were not provided health insurance.
In 2018, former cheerleader Erica Wilkins filed a class action lawsuit against the Cowboys, which brought the pay from $8 to $12 per hour the following year. Wilkins claimed that despite their high skill level and risk for injury, the girls were paid less than the mascot, sometimes even earning less than minimum wage. The low pay was a mystery to fans considering the Cowboys franchise is worth $11 billion, three billion more than any other NFL team.
Although the show does not disclose the new wage rate, Jada Mclean, a retired DCC member who led the effort for increased pay, said that veteran cheerleaders could now make over $75 an hour.
“There’s a lot of cynicism around pay for NFL cheerleaders, as it should be,” Charlotte Jones, Cowboys’ executive vice president and chief brand officer, says in an episode of the show. “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.”
Still, cheerleaders and fans alike are triumphant. Megan McElaney, DCC dancer, says the raise “kind of felt like a relief, like everything had paid off,” solidifying her decision to try out again next season.
This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.