Warrior Girls Alum Speaks Out About Pro Cheer Compensation
Cheerleaders deserve fair pay
Lisa Murray
SFGate.com
February 12, 2014
For more than 40 years, professional cheerleaders have been poorly compensated for their countless hours of hard work for multimillion-dollar sports franchises in a billion-dollar industry. This should embarrass professional sports.
After hoping to change this problem from the inside, I quickly realized that was never going to happen.
The Baltimore Colts were the first team to have cheerleaders in the National Football League, in 1954. In 1979, Jerry Buss commissioned the Laker Girls after he purchased the basketball team from Jack Kent Cooke. Soon afterward, dance teams became more popular across the United States. Sadly, women have allowed these organizations to shortchange them for years, and we only have ourselves to blame. The bottom line is that it is illegal for these teams to be paying women below minimum wage. Not all teams do this, but far too many do. That is an issue in itself, but the bigger concern goes much deeper than that.
Anyone who has spoken in support of these multimillion-dollar organizations shortchanging the dancers is part of the problem. Women have valued their notoriety as cheerleaders more than their rights in the workplace, especially in a male-driven industry. They continue to set all women back, after so many have fought to create equality and fair pay.
In order to raise awareness on the issue and work toward receiving reasonable pay for all National Basketball Association and NFL professional cheerleaders, we need to stand up and fight for our rights as a united front.
This is not a starting point, but an end goal. Women are selected for a professional dance team because of their skill set, potential or experience. They are good enough to make a team – just like any other athlete being signed to a professional sports team. Yet we have no one advocating for us, so we have been taken advantage of. Wouldn’t it make sense to let the players association decide what fair and just pay for cheerleaders is for each market?
Prior to making an NBA dance team, I had not had professional experience. I played basketball in high school and was fortunate enough to be trained by former college and NBA players who are family friends. I heard about an audition on the radio, and the next thing I knew, I was standing in a gym with 250 other woman fighting for a spot on the Golden State Warriors Dance Team. It seemed like an amazing opportunity because two of my passions are dance and basketball.
Not knowing much about this profession, I looked down and thought to myself, “Do I really need to wear a sparkly outfit to get this job?”
Shortly after making the team, I realized there was much more to this profession than fake eyelashes and pompons. NBA dancers practice at least 12 hours a week, work out independently to stay in shape and are expected to learn routines on their own time (which takes about two to four hours each week). They have 41 home games, each of which are seven-hour workdays, and in addition a set number of personal appearances per season.
NFL cheerleaders have 10 home games, which are nine-to-10-hour workdays, practice for up to nine hours a week, and have a set number of appearances for close to nine months straight. All this is done while being paid lower than minimum wage (or in some cases $10 an hour), while holding another full-time job or attending university.
In order to fix a problem, you have to become aware of it. Then it is our job to educate others in order to produce change. This is so women in the workplace can soar and stop being held back by stereotypes.
