Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Get Huge Pay Raise

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have secured a major victory.

In Season 2 of Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, which debuted Wednesday on the streamer, it was revealed that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had negotiated a 400% pay raise for the 2025 season.

In the docuseries, four-year Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders veteran Megan McElaney revealed there had been “new changes” for the season. “Our efforts were heard and they wanted to give us a raise,” she said. “And we ended up getting a 400% increase, which is like, life-changing.”

“‘Happy’ isn’t even the right word for it,” said five-year veteran cheerleader Jada McLean, who helped lead pay negotiations after previously being nearly evicted from her home. “I think I was just… kind of felt, like, a relief — like everything had paid off. And it was, you know, finally, we were done fighting.”

“We pushed, and we got back good results,” added fellow team member Armani Latimer.

Later in TIME, McLean revealed that the first season of America’s Sweethearts had given the cheerleaders a leg up when it came to negotiations. The dancers had spoken openly during the Netflix series about having to work multiple jobs to pay their bills, despite Forbes valuing the Cowboys at $10 billion in 2024, making it the richest organization in the league.

“Having people watch the television show and speak up honestly on behalf of us and say, ‘Hey, this is not right. We weren’t aware that these girls are making so little’—that motivated us to speak up more for ourselves,” McLean said.

Tad Carper, senior vice president of communications for the Cowboys, told the outlet of the raise in an email, “We’re pleased, as you’ll see in the series, that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were happy with the outcome.”

While the exact dollar amount of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ raise was not disclosed, NBC Boston reported in 2022 that the cheerleaders made between $15 and $20 an hour and $500 per match, which amounted to about $75,000 a year.

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader wages previously made headlines in 2018, when former Cowboys cheerleader Erica Wilkins sued the organization. Her 2019 settlement resulted in an increase in the hourly wage from $8 an hour to $12 an hour and in game day wages from $200 to $400.