The concept that NFL Cheerleaders must be getting paid alot and enjoy a luxury life, is not true. Every cheerleader squad in NFL has amature and elite girls who get paid differently depending on the experience. We take a look at how much they get paid.
In 2014 the news about NFL Cheerleders getting paid below the minimum wage salary was all over internet and there was also a lawsuit by a cheerleader of “Oakland Raiders” which resulted in court making sure that Oakland Raiders are paying atleast the minimum wage. So today we take a indepth look at NFL cheerleaders wage structure what is the minimum wage going into 2017 and how much an average cheerleader can make through course of a season.
We start with the example of recent lawsuit by a cheerleader of Oakland Raiders named “Lucy T” made headlines when she filed a law suit that team is paying below the minimum hourly wages to cheerleaders. She was reticulated in the media and even her fellow cheerleaders blasted her for breaking the sisterhood. But she alongside a few more managed to win the lawsuit which resulted in “$1.25 million settlement”
Oakland Raiders current and former cheerleaders filed a law suit against the team for paying less than minimum wage.
According to the previous contract Raiderettes were paid $5 an hour for their services which is ofcourse below minimum wage and after the law suit a new contract was signed where average cheerleader from Oakland Raiders will get $9 hourly salary. This $9 hour salary include training, and working hours needed to practice for the matchday. Apparently there is also a match fee which is around $60 to $70 for the armature cheerleaders and between $100 to $200 for elite ones. There were number of other similar law suit filled against teams such as Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers some of them are still not resolved while other teams decided to increase the wages to minimum required by the state.
How Much a Cheerleader Can Make In a Season ?
The salary is different from team to team and the kind of experience and contract a cheerleader has with the team. Almost all the teams have elite(main leads) and armature(Supporting). Following is the know wages plus match fees they get.
| Hourly Wage | Match Fees | Season Income | |
| Elite(Main) Leaders of the squads | $9 to $15 | $100 to $200 | $3000 to $3500 |
| Supporting Cheerleader | $9 | $60 to $70 | $1500 to $2000 |
The job and the demand:
Professional cheerleading is more than the game time and halftime, they are needed to be in shape at all times and have to follow strict fitness and weight scale. They have to follow the practice sessions leading upto the game week plus photoshoots and autograph signings as well.
Off the pitch activities:
Many Cheerleaders are picked from every team to represent in the official teams appearances, photoshoots and the other paid gigs for example selling teams official merchandise etc. They can also use this as platform which some of the girls use to make contact and move to other professional careers. There are number of famous hollywood and TV stars who were professional cheerleaders in their younger days, for example the likes of Teri Hatcher, Megan Fox are just the two names out of many.
Some interesting facts about cheerleaders:
- Most of them are students and doing cheerleading stuff as a part time job while some are working mothers who wants to make that extra buck and also keep in shape.
- The average age of NFL cheerleaders is around 25 years
- The first ever cheerleader squad was of Baltimore Colts which was established in 1954
- Some of the cheerleaders are highly educated, for example Dr. Jennifer Horrel Page is a qualified doctor while Rachel Peterson is chemical engineer.
rediculate?
This DISGUSTS me. Again, women are considered “less than” and taken advantage of. Cheerleading is a highly demanding and physically taxing job. Let me guess, male NFL players are paid more than minimum wage? No doubt to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a season? Compared to $1250 for an NFL cheerleader? The NFL should be ashamed of themselves.
I agree I think the NFL should be shamed for under paying these girls. Good grief you make billions off paid attendance and I’m sure you could pay those girls $300.00 pregame and $50 per practice. Stingy people don’t make very good Angels…
The NFL football teams don’t own the cheerleading squads. It’s a completely different company that runs it. That’s why they don’t make more and the NFL players make a lot it’s 2 completely different companies. Plus they get into it knowing what they are going to make. Also they only do the 8 home games and then if they make the playoffs they will go but for thr most part they don’t travel or have to leave there families like thr NFL players.
I agree
ok hoe
I agree these girls should be paid more and team could definitely afford to pay more but truthfully these girls don’t do this to make a living but to gain opportunity for career in modeling or acting.
okat hoe
You are absolutely 100% correct. Football teams have more than enough money to go around. Share the wealth! Maybe they should all go on strike and see how the fans feel about that! Go girls!!!!!
how many cowgirls have made millions by appearing on playboy, hustler, etc.. this like a jon to advance i.. graduauted 4 year college , top honors snd still can make 25 K… but when women their body for future assets.. yes pro football cheerleaedr is way to go.. you want TV coverage way to go,,want to pose nude ..good for you.. but one thign leads to a other
Wow! To think that someone who received a 4 yr. education didn’t find time to take a class on bedside manner and grammar baffles me. Only a molester with your caliber thinks this way. You’re a nasty man to say the least.
Most of these young women are professionally trained dancers with degrees. My daughter has a career at a highly respected company who is generous enough to work with her schedule as a dancer for a top NBA team. She does not perform one night a week. She can perform as much as 5 nights a week and the season is long. My hope is that dancers for professional sports team unionize so they are paid better and for the time they train and practice routines. Sometimes they learning 3-4 new routines a week. That does not come easy. The Rockettes are union and they are paid well. Yes she knew what she was getting into when she auditioned. But it doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t be paid a fair wage for ALL of the time she puts into it. Why does she do it? Because she loves to dance! Her first dance lesson was when she was 5. Do football players not like to play? Do hockey players not like to play? Do basketball players not like to play? You get my point. And Notso…this is a real job. I’d like to see you try to do it.
Calm your tiddies. Don’t go lashing out at other for telling the truth because your daughter’s a hoe.
Dancing for the over-paid over-hyped tattooed thugs who can bounce a ball into a little hoop? Ooh quick, put THAT on my bucket list! No thanks!
I’m sure your daughter can find other avenues to “dance”, that don’t include being treated as nothing more than bouncing eye-candy for horny immature basketball viewers and thug players. Look at the cheerleader calendars – you think THOSE are produced for middle-aged women? LOL!!
Either face it, or don’t – but your daughter is just part of today’s generation of hoes, inspired by the Kardashians and instagram “models” who are either just using their superficiality to land some Euro-Beta male with deep pockets, or she just gets off on exhibitionism, or both. But don’t run around trying to bullshit everyone that she’s more than that, and is actually contributing to something that will matter until the next bunch of thugs take the court and she runs back out, half naked, and starts shaking her “assets” for the immature drunken frat morons in the crowd – you’re only fooling yourself, in that you look like a fool.
These cheerleaders need t get a real job if they want to get paid. Cheerleader is high school and college stuff. This is nfl. Besides they don’t do anything to get paid. Get a real job
Idiocracy at its’ finest! This is a performance in case you haven’t noticed. I wonder . . . do you watch movies? Hmm . . . do you like plays? Guess what? Those are performances as well and most likely you pay for them. You don’t feed or clothe them so what do you care, get a life! You’re the one that deserves to get paid below hourly wage.
You might as well say that football is “high school and college stuff”. And that they should “get a real job”. But there is a ridiculous double standard there. So that you know, cheerleading accounts for nearly 65% of all catastrophic injuries in girls’ high school athletics (and they only represent 3% of the female athletes). Among commonly sustained injuries are concussions, broken wrists, knees, noses and tragically, sometimes broken necks and vertebrae. It is incredibly rigorous requiring all of the skills displayed by professional dancers or Olympic gymnasts. And yet at a college level, they are not recognized as even being athletes. It is frequently a requirement that these NFL cheerleaders must be in college full time or have a full time job in addition to their cheerleading post. It is complete injustice that they do not garner more wages for what they do. They need to stand up for themselves and demand the respect they so clearly deserve.
Some former cheerleaders: Renee Zellweger, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Katie Couric, Jennifer Lawrence and me.
This is absolutely ridiculous!!! I am appalled that the NFL (National f**** League) would even do something like this. First, you hide information that cost lives and now it comes out that you are making cheerleaders into pretty slaves. ARE YOU NUTS!!!! This is why my son will never play the game. When you lose the trust of the moms you lose the game.
I think that they need to strike and demand competition wages. My daughter and granddaughter have doing competition Cheer for 5 years going into 6 the season and I kept telling them about being NFL Cheer Leading could help them go through college but now after reading this I might have steered the wrong way. CONCERNED!
This is ridiculous”” they pay those players too much money, those girls needs to get paid for there ,times and effort of what they do, toward encourage those players””and how they really works the crowd, by getting them excited about there team as a fan for team, it’s will not hurt them at all to up those girls salary,”” what are they thanking about! what about there time and effort, what about there hard work, have they consider thats ashame, something gots to give for those girls, you know what I mean” really
I basically think these women use their looks and bodies to further their careers. They are also probably hoping to snag a pro athlete husband. Let’s face it. Sex sells and if they come away with a husband, who cares? I always say,” Work with what you got”.
Cheerleaders and football players are contractually forbidden from interacting in the NFL. Might want to find a different trope to peddle.
NFL cheerleaders are to me just sad and ridiculous. Sure they are fit and attractive but actual football is played by people who are infinitely more talented. Their (cheerleaders’) ‘talents’ are probably best appreciated at the local strip club.
Football is an amazing sport with supremely talented athletes. Silly scantily clad women add nothing by shaking shiney things. In an age of easily accessible internet porn, no one would miss these girls. They just obstruct the view of actual athletes.