Another NFL Team Gets Heat Over Cheerleader Pay
Experts are saying that the NFL had better brace itself for a rough road ahead. Yet another NFL team has been sued by a former cheerleader over claims that the team violated both state and federal labor laws. The cheerleader cases are but a handful of the thousands of other wage-and-hour lawsuits filed this year by employees who feel that they were cheated out of valuable time.
The recent cheerleader case is aimed at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was filed by former cheerleader Manouchcar Pierre-Val. The Buccaneers now join the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills in facing similar claims of wage violations. According to Pierre-Val, though she loved the sport of cheering she was ultimately forced to give it up because it simply wasn’t compensating her fairly for her time.
Pierre-Val claims in her lawsuit that when her wages were divided by the actual time the cheerleading squad was required to work, she managed to earn less than $2 per hour. The Buccaneers pays its cheerleaders $100 per game, which may not seem so bad until you dive into the requirements for earning the money.
Cheerleaders were all required to show up to practice four hours before each and every game. Additionally, the squad had to practice for between four and 15 hours each week. These practices were mandatory yet unpaid. Beyond the cheering and the practicing, cheerleaders were also required as part of their contract to attend a minimum of 40 hours of public appearance events each year. Corporate-sponsored events would pay between $25 and $50 per hour, though charitable and other public events were uncompensated.
Pierre-Val claims the Buccaneers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and that she and other former cheerleaders are entitled to compensation for unpaid wages. Rather than settle for the $2 an hour she was getting, Pierre-Val has asked the Buccaneers to pay at least minimum wage for the time that the cheerleaders were asked to work.
A similar claim brought against the Oakland Raiders resulted in a disappointing decision out of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Earlier this year, the DOL ruled that cheerleaders were not subject to the federal minimum wage laws because they are only seasonal workers and thus not entitled to standard wage protections.
Despite the negative opinion out of the DOL, Pierre-Val and others have continued pressing claims against NFL teams asking for fair compensation for their many hours of hard work. The hope is that the cheerleaders are ultimately paid for their time, regardless of their seasonal status.
Source: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Become Latest Team to be Sued by Former Cheerleader, by Josh Sanchez, published at SI.com. on May 20, 2014.
Source: “Jiggle Tests, Dunk Tanks, and Unpaid Labor: How NFL Teams Degrade Their Cheerleaders,” by Julia Lurie, published at MotherJones.com. on May 22, 2014
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