Victory For America’s Sweethearts: Pay Increase For The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Follow the journey of The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders as Editorial Assistant Siya Pujari uncovers the meaning of “pink collar” jobs. 

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have achieved an increase of 400 per cent to their salaries, following years of failed lawsuits and public criticism of the pay structure that the Cheerleaders were subjected to. The first notable financial dispute raised by a former cheerleader was in 2018 when Erica Wilkin launched a lawsuit against the Cowboys for unfair pay, petitioning for an appropriate pay rise with the claim that she was being paid USD$7 per hour and USD$200 per home game.^[1] However, even this exponential increase comes with caveats, as explained by Jada McLean, a former cheerleader and fifth-year team leader who in an interview with Variety stated that “the entire pay structure has changed, so it’s not just an increase of what we had. It’s restructured the way we’re paid in general.”^[2] This restructuring would allow for the monetary compensation received by the Cheerleaders to potentially reflect the distinctly intense expectations required in their roles with extensive rehearsal hours, game day schedules and promotional appearances.  

This pay increase perhaps, and most probably, was stimulated by the public reaction to director and producer Greg Whiteley’s acclaimed docuseries America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, with its understated lens highlighting the substantial hours the women work and the physical exertion endured for very limited payoff. Stated aptly by Vanity Fair, the docuseries serves as a reminder of the consequences for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in their positions as an “intersection of art and commerce,” and how this intersection can be used as a weapon against those systematically subdued, such as female athletes in the American arena.^[3] 

Following the elected case study of Kelcey Wetterberg in season one of the docuseries, one of the team captains in the 2022-2023 cheer season, her daily life gets dissected by the camera with great attention to the considerable hours she works. It is shown early on in the episode run that alongside the extensive nightly practices as a DCC, she works 7:00am to 4:00pm as a pediatric nurse. It becomes apparent that the strenuous lifestyle she leads is not a unique situation amongst the team and that multiple dancers work one, or multiple other jobs, combined with their position requirements of a DCC. In following her storyline, she reveals that, as a direct consequence of being a DCC, an unknown individual placed an Airtag under her car and tracked her car to the location of her home. The emotional toil this situation caused for Wetterberg’s daily life was accepted as an inevitable consequence of a public-facing job that she would have to endure, with no externally affirmed support by the administration of the Cowboys institute. 

Examining the other contenders in the Dallas Cowboys organisation, the Cowboys players themselves have exorbitant salaries with the current greatest one being a four-year $240 million contract for Dak Prescott^[4]—the gender pay gap has been thriving in the cocoon of the NFL. Not only are the singular players paid significant figures, the Dallas Cowboys as a corporate entity are the most profitable team in the system of American NFL.^[5] The economics of this lingering disparity could be attributed to the classification of the Cheerleaders as independent contractors rather than part-time or full-time employees, which allows for hiring entities to avoid minimum wage laws and benefits such as health insurance to these athletes. However, a particularly indulgent scene in the docuseries consists of two Cheerleaders attempting to justify to the camera their poor benefits received in the role due to the role sporadically being part-time hours during cheer season—until a producer interjects and asks: “How many hours did you work this week?” In response, they both look at each other and hesitantly answer “...30, maybe 40 hours?” 

To further contextualise this moment, it should be noted that the Cheerleaders have been treated and framed as working “pink collar” jobs, not as athletes. The term “pink collar” was formed to classify the group of women who are subjugated to low-paying customer-facing jobs in service industries due to their gender which is further characterised by society’s demeaning and undervaluing attitude towards the roles.^[6]

This is seen in Charlotte Jones’—the Cowboys’ Chief Brand Officer who is also the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' daughter—explanation of why the Cowboys resisted paying the Cheerleaders a higher salary. She posits in the docuseries that “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. They have a passion for dance…It is about a sisterhood that they are able to form, about relationships that they have for the rest of their life. They have a chance to feel like they are valued, they are special, and they are making a difference. When the women come here, they find their passion and they find their purpose.” With the management of this institution framing professional cheerleading as the pinnacle of a job where they are performing a service for themselves rather than the corporation, the “pink collar” lens becomes glaringly apparent. 

As such, this pay increase could be noted as a demonstrative win for the Cheerleaders with it being reported that the Cheerleaders would now earn a salary of USD$75,000. However, fifth-year veteran Megan McElaney asserted on her TikTok platform that this number was dependent on the opportunities each cheerleader participates in and their role in the team, and that she is “hoping for one day to make 75K!”^[7]

The distinction between sisterhood and employer came to a head with the proposed walk-out. The docuseries reveals that during the 2024 season, the senior veterans led the charge for a boycott of practice and withheld the signing of their contracts in protest for better pay and working conditions after the success of the first season. Kylie Dickson, a current cheerleader on the team, communicates this by saying that “the world was telling us girls fight for more. So we’re like, ‘OK’!” However, after the veteran-guided Zoom meeting, an unknown individual leaks this information back to the Cowboys staff and the management union-busts the inception of a potential walk-out. The conversation instead shifts back onto the Cheerleaders, with the management allegedly stating that if the women conducted a walk-out, they would be in breach of their implied contracts and ultimately, nothing would emerge from their actions. 

Ultimately, this pay increase and alteration of payment structure for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders should be considered and appreciated with the contextual implications with veteran McLean remarking that while she will not be able to experience the increased pay, “I’m proud of those of us who sparked the fire.”

ENDNOTES

[1] Law, Angela. “The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Finally Got Their Pay Rise.” Elle, 7 Jul. 2025, https://www.elle.com.au/culture/entertainment/dallas-cowboy-cheerleaders-pay-salary/.

[2] Jackson, Angelique. “Did the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Really Get a 400% Pay Raise? And Whether Netflix’s ‘America’s Sweethearts’ Made a Difference in the Negotiations.” Variety, 24 Jun. 2025, https://variety.com/2025/tv/features/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-pay-raise-dcc-vet-jada-explains-1236439279/. 

[3] Lawson, Richard. “The Agony and Ecstasy of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Show.” Vanity Fair, 8 Jul. 2024, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/netflix-americas-sweethearts-dallas-cowboy-cheerleaders-show?srsltid=AfmBOorxk5_atG8oRdSAg9NwAKzBrppoUI_nfU3Q3GcyL1s92zRyf5J5 

[4] Dallas Cowboys Contracts. Spotrac, https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/dallas-cowboys/contracts. Accessed 19 August 2025. 

[5] Badenhausen, Kurt. “Most Valuable NFL Teams 2024: Cowboys First to Top $10 Billion.” Sportico, 13 Aug. 2024, https://www.sportico.com/valuations/teams/2024/most-valuable-nfl-teams-2024-cowboys-1234793118/. 

[6] Pink Collar Jobs. HiPeople, https://www.hipeople.io/glossary/pink-collar-jobs. Accessed 18 August 2025. 

[7] Devine, Victoria. “These cheerleaders secured a 400% pay rise. But it’s still not enough.” Sydney Morning Herald, 29 Jun. 2025, https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/these-cheerleaders-secured-a-400-percent-pay-rise-but-it-s-still-not-enough-20250627-p5mau4.html.