These cheerleaders secured a 400% pay rise. But it's still not enough
So the fact that salary negotiations were a major plot line throughout season two was something that I very much welcomed. The veteran team members in particular were ready to rally and fight for not only what they deserved, but the future they wanted for the next generation of cheerleaders long after they were gone.
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Now, apologies for the spoilers (though I find it impossible to believe that anyone watching the show didn't binge it over a couple of marathon sittings), the good news is that by the end of the season and following some pretty rough negotiations, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders secured a 400 per cent pay rise for the next season and beyond.
But before you get too excited and think, 'How great! That's a salary of more than $230,000 for a part-time job, what an iconic slay for the girls!' Sadly, that's not quite the case. While the pay increase means that a cheerleader's base salary for game days alone will now be around $77,000, everything else is still up for grabs.
Last week, Megan McElaney, who is a fourth-year veteran and was crucial to the salary increase negotiations, talked about her pay bump on TikTok, saying that despite the improvement, she's still earning much less than you'd think.
'Many of the opportunities we get are optional and based on your schedule, so it depends on the girl,' McElaney said, before adding that despite four years of service to the team, her position as a senior dancer and mentor to first-year rookies, she is still 'hoping for one day to make 75K ($AU$114,000)!'
Don't get me wrong, a salary of $77,000 for a part-time job is something many of us would dream of. But when you consider how physically demanding the job is, the number of dancers who require corrective surgeries almost as soon as they hang up their short shorts, the lack of health insurance coverage, and the fact that the company they work for is worth $15 billion, $77,000 feels like the absolute bare minimum.
But more than that, America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders highlights a much more serious and darker reality of why financial independence is so important for women.
In season one, dancer Kelcey Wetterberg talks about being stalked by a fan and having a tracking device placed on her car. Team management also tell viewers why they carry a football during photo ops with fans and cheerleaders (so that male fans have something to hold on to and don't inappropriately touch the dancers).
In season two, Chandi Dayle opens up about being in an abusive relationship, and experiencing harassment and stalking after she left.
While the Dallas Cowboys are in no way responsible for these events, if they are truly committed to keeping women safe, decades of research, reporting, statistics and data tell us that one of the best ways to do that is through financial freedom.
That could be paying them enough so that they have the savings and necessary means to leave an unsafe environment. It could be having the money to hire a lawyer and ensure you receive the representation you deserve in matters pertaining to your safety. It could be earning enough that you can afford psychological support and care to process your experiences.
Too often when we discuss salaries, requests for pay rises are seen as someone simply wanting to get ahead and make it to what they feel like is the next level. But the reality is that, aside from women deserving to be adequately remunerated for their expertise and value to a company, money is also a tool to keep women safe.
If the Cowboys truly care about that, it's something Jerry and Charlotte Jones would do well to remember that next time negotiations come around.
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