Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Form Union After Years of Pay Battles
The Dallas Cowboys have agreed to recognize the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association as the official collective bargaining representative for one of professional sports’ most iconic cheer squads, both sides announced in a joint statement Friday.
The move marks a major milestone after years of the cheerleaders pushing for better pay. “The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are an esteemed part of the Cowboys organization, deeply respected for the talent and dedication they exhibit,” the statement said. “They remain one of the most sought-after opportunities for talented dancers worldwide.”
Pay has long been a flashpoint. During the second season of the Netflix series *America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders*, which aired last year, one member noted that the squad received a 400% raise. That increase followed a 2019 settlement with a former cheerleader that doubled per-game pay to $400.
The Cowboys Cheerleaders became only the second NFL squad to unionize. The first was the Buffalo Jills (Buffalo Bills), who won a National Labor Relations Board ruling in 1995 allowing them to form the National Football League Cheerleaders Association and then voted to join it. The Jills later disbanded after a 2014 lawsuit in which former members alleged they worked hundreds of unpaid hours and faced groping and sexual comments.
Virginia Commonwealth University sociology professor Victor Chen, who studies labor issues, said the Cowboys cheerleaders’ high profile—especially the Netflix series—likely strengthened their position. Without that visibility, he suggested, the team might simply have replaced them, given the large number of people willing to take low-paying entertainment jobs.
“So you see a lot of that inequality of compensation in any sort of artistic or entertainment field where you have lots of people clamoring to get into it and maybe being unpaid or very poorly paid to do so,” Chen said.
The Cowboys remain the world’s most valuable professional sports franchise, according to Forbes.