{"id":57209,"date":"2025-06-19T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=57209"},"modified":"2025-06-19T09:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T09:00:40","slug":"dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-get-400-percent-increase-after-pay-fight-in-americas-sweethearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=57209","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders get ‘400 percent increase’ after pay fight in America’s Sweethearts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cheerleader Megan McElaney called it “life-changing.”<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have won a raise.<\/span>Credit:\u00a0<\/span>Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders scored the win this time.<\/p>\n

The second season of Netflix docuseries\u00a0America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders<\/em>, which was released Wednesday, reveals the women landed a big raise.<\/p>\n

“‘Happy’ isn’t even the right word for it. It kind of felt like a relief, like everything had paid off. And finally, we were done fighting.” former cheerleader Jada McLean said.<\/p>\n

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\"Judy<\/div>\n<\/div>
Judy Trammell and Kelli Finglass pose with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders in May.<\/span>Jason Mendez\/Getty for Netflix<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In season 1, the women talked about their need to work other jobs during their physically demanding and time-consuming tenure on the team, which includes hours of mandatory practices, games, and other appearances.<\/p>\n

In the seventh and final episode of this season, Megan McElaney, who’s a\u00a0fourth-year\u00a0veteran, explained what had gone down after some of the women approached the organization’s leadership early in the season.<\/p>\n

“Our efforts were heard, and they wanted to give us a raise,” the cheerleader from Oceanside, Calif., said. \u201cAnd we ended up getting a 400 percent increase, which is, like, life-changing.”<\/p>\n

Members of the team have lobbied for a pay hike for years. In a\u00a02018 unfair pay lawsuit, former cheerleader Erica Wilkins claimed that she received approximately $7 per hour, no overtime pay, and a flat rate of $200 for each game appearance. In 2019, after Wilkins settled the lawsuit with the team, the cheerleaders received $400 per game, according to the\u00a0Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Forbes<\/em>\u00a0magazine named the Cowboys 2024’s\u00a0most valuable NFL team\u00a0for the ninth year in a row, at $10.1 billion, in a list released that August.<\/p>\n

America’s Sweethearts<\/em>\u00a0follows the women, as well as their coach Kelli Finglass (her official title is senior director) and Judy Trammell, their head choreographer, through grueling tryouts and extensive preparation for games.<\/p>\n

Some other things have changed, too, since the team\u00a0began in 1961\u00a0or even since another reality show about the DCC, CMT’s\u00a0Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team<\/em>, aired between 2006 and 2021.<\/p>\n

The women don’t hear as much about the requirement to keep their bodies looking a certain way, although they do still have to wear those tiny blue and white ensembles.<\/p>\n

“Each cheerleader has a custom-made uniform for her shape and they are hand-tailored,” Finglass told\u00a0E! Ne<\/em>ws<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in June 2024. “And outside of just trying to make that uniform fit and and have the best, most beautiful lines, we don’t talk about weight or things like that.”<\/p>\n

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders<\/em>\u00a0is available now on Netflix.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheerleader Megan McElaney called it “life-changing.” The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have won a raise.Credit:\u00a0Courtesy of Netflix The Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders scored the win this time. The second… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nDallas Cowboys cheerleaders get '400 percent increase' after pay fight in America's Sweethearts - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=57209\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders get '400 percent increase' after pay fight in America's Sweethearts - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cheerleader Megan McElaney called it “life-changing.” The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have won a raise.Credit:\u00a0Courtesy of Netflix The Dallas Cowboys’ cheerleaders scored the win this time. 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