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A former NFL cheerleader is filing a proposed class action wage lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) and its teams for allegedly denying fair wages to female athletes.
The wage lawsuit was filed just days before the Super Bowl in California federal court after the organization allegedly used intimidation tactics to keep female cheerleaders from pursuing lost wages.
The former cheerleader is being identified as Jane Doe, who previously worked for the San Francisco 49ers from July 2013 until February 2014.
According to her potential class action wage lawsuit, she is seeking to represent a class of all cheerleaders who were employed by the National Football League over the past four years.
Overview of Punitive Class Action Wage Lawsuit
According to the wage lawsuit, the National Football League and 26 teams that manage cheer leading squads have agreed to pay the cheerleaders flat fees and agreed to stop recruiting women from the NFL cheer leading squads.
This ultimately causes most cheerleaders to only earn between $1,000 to $1,500 per year. They should be earning much more considering the amount of work it takes for them to perform during games and the all the time consumed at the many practice sessions.
“The value of female athletes as the face of the franchise to each defendant NFL member team’s community is difficult to quantify, but certainly contributed to the fair market value of each class member. [A]s alleged above, consultations with industry experts suggest the fair market value of each female athlete to be approximately $100,000.00 per year,” the wage lawsuit said.
In comparison, football players earned an average of $1.3 million in 2016 while squad players earned $117,300 and mascots earning between $25,000 to $65,000. Once again cheerleaders only reportedly made between $1,000 to $1,500, which is not a reasonable living salary.
The wage lawsuit also notes that cheerleaders are highly skilled performers with years, and sometimes even decades, of training but are often given less than flattering names like ‘Buffalo Jills’ or ‘Seattle Sea Gals.’
It is also important to point out that the NFL profits from these cheerleaders in other ways, such as using photographic images of them in promotional materials including videos, calendars and other merchandise without compensating them.
Jane Doe alleges that the NFL prohibited female athletes from discussing their wages, and that the NFL higher-ups enforced their low wage agreement on the cheerleaders through various intimidation tactics.
According to the wage lawsuit, female athletes were told “they were lucky to be chosen” and “should be grateful and could quickly be replaced if they failed to perform” or go along with the low wage arrangement. The wage lawsuit alleges the NFL violated California’s Cartwright Act and Sherman Act, and is seeking damages between $100 million and $300 million.
This proposed Class Action Wage Lawsuit is Doe v. NFL Enterprises LLC et al., Case No. 3:17-cv-00496, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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