Thanks to collective bargaining by veteran team members, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders got themselves a 400% raise—a huge deal considering they were previously working multiple other jobs just to make ends meet.
But it looks like their new salary is…somewhat less than expected. As a reminder: last season on America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Kat revealed that the DCC paid her the same amount as a full-time Chick-fil-A worker (around $37,947). With that number in mind, a 400 percent raise would be somewhere around $151,000. However, Megan McElaney—who helped lead the effort to renegotiate contracts—just hopped into a fan’s TikTok comments and revealed that she’s making less than $75,000 a year.
“Hi! Many of the opportunities we get are optional and based on your schedule so it depends on the girl! Hoping for one day to make 75K!” Megan wrote, going on to add “This is also a part time job and sometimes it’s only 2.5 hours a night! They’re very respectful of our time and our personal lives!”
This comes amid Jada McLean telling the New York Times that in 2024 (her fifth year on DCC) she was making $15 an hour and $500 for each appearance. She also confirmed that the raise has them making $75 an hour, but that they still don’t get health insurance. Obviously, any raise is a huge win—but sounds like there’s still a ways to go before the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are truly compensated fairly! As Jada put it to the NYT, “We are more than just cheerleaders. We’re talented, strong, educated women and we’re hard-working athletes who deserve to be seen as such.”
