The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Get a Raise

A 400% raise is nothing to shake a stick at, but why did it take so long?

Season 2 of Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts hit the streaming service last week, and the touchy conversation of pay made its return to the docuseries.

In Season 1, the cheerleaders addressed the pay they received, and the Dallas Cowboys franchise received backlash as many viewers were surprised the women made so little. For anyone familiar with the football franchise, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys are no strangers to wealth. The Dallas Cowboys have an estimated valuation of $10.32 billion.

So, the thought of these girls earning a few hundred dollars per game made people a bit uncomfortable, which was exactly what the documentarians were going for.

Look, my Denver Broncos bias loves when Jerry Jones is bled dry. So when a 400% pay raise for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders was announced at the end of Season 2, I couldn’t help but celebrate. Get it, girls!

This conversation extends well past the confines of corporate America and political podiums. The Dallas Cowboys are a cog in a machine of prejudice towards women in the workplace.

I’ve heard a variety of justifications for the meager pay the DCC received up until this announcement. “The football players are the real focus of the industry.” Yes, I know. “It’s an honorary role. They should be happy they get the chance to dance at such an elite level.” Yes, but if we are casually throwing around the term “elite,” then we start to enter some tricky territory.

Because when I hear “elite”, I think of the best, the top tier. I think of professionalism, and how a professional cannot be separated from the talk of pay. If they are truly dancing at an elite level, then I would expect the pay to reflect the status.

Or else it’s time for the Jones dynasty to drop the word “elite” from their vocabulary, and tell it like it is. It’s a dancing job—an exciting one, but not without a caveat. Not without exploitation—taking advantage of talents and services for financial gain.

Or in the Cowboys’ case, not paying their “elite” performers a living wage when they demand the bulk of their time, energy, and, in my humble opinion, sanity from the perfection that is demanded of them. These women are expected to look, act, and perform flawlessly because this is an industry that will cut you if you’re not the right height or have the right hair color.

The America’s Sweetheart docuseries isn’t the first wave of pressure for fair wages that has been placed on the Dallas Cowboys franchise. In 2018, former cheerleader Erica Wilkins sued the Cowboys for fair wages, resulting in a settlement that boosted DCC’s hourly wages from $8 to $12 as well as an increase in game-day payouts from $200 to $400. It was progress. For a time. But without a consistent and positive pattern, this change does little to keep up with the rising cost of living. And in one of America’s most expensive and booming cities, it’s easy to fall behind.

Until recently, the Cowboys’ franchise has justified the low wages by supplying a few “perks” of the job. These perks include free nail kits, makeup, and gym memberships. There are a lot of them, and while they are nice, and most women would go giggly for free makeup, perks don’t pay the bills. They don’t negate a mortgage, rent, car payments, or student loans. Perks can’t cover the cost of living. Modern-day wages can barely do that.

Jada, a veteran and team lead of DCC, disclosed to the producers that she received an eviction notice from her apartment complex. Jada is one of many cheerleaders who start their day job early in the morning and conclude DCC practices at 10 to 11 pm. They wake up and repeat. Year after year, these women are expected to continue to grind. The coaches admit to praising this work ethic, and some believe it’s part of the DCC appeal.

They want their cheerleaders to be multi-faceted, and while that can be an admirable trait, especially with young and impressionable girls watching, it’s also problematic. It teaches young women that obedience and complacency are the only ways to get ahead, a dangerous lesson to teach in a world with institutions that pressure them back to traditional roles.

This season, I wanted nothing more than to shake the coaches and snap them out of this reasoning. I wanted to tell them that I’m not drawn to the DCC entity because they work two to four jobs and can handle the workload you place on them. Rather, I am drawn to it because they are the elite of the elite in the dancing universe. They are athletes and top-tier performers. I don’t find it admirable that they struggle; I find it sad how normalized it is to exploit talented, young women.

It doesn’t matter that they’re not the ones playing football. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are a marketing powerhouse for the franchise. The Jones dynasty knows this. DCC is the face of the franchise as much as the quarterback.

So, to hear DCC achieved a 400% raise within a system that has repeatedly suppressed their wishes, I congratulate them. And I thank the documentarians for creating the pressure necessary to instigate change because investing in women is not only smart, it changes the game for all of us.