For years the going rate for standing on an NFL sideline was $125 a game. Not per hour. Per game. Then a Raiderette hired a lawyer, and the next decade got expensive for a lot of franchises. Here is what NFL cheerleaders actually earn, using only figures that came out of court records, settlement documents or the cheerleaders’ own mouths.
Fair warning: most of what you will find online about this is guesswork. Salary aggregators run algorithms over job postings and produce confident numbers no team has ever confirmed. Everything below is traceable to a real source, and where nobody has published a real figure, this article says so instead of inventing one.
NFL cheerleader salary: the three-part paycheck
An NFL cheerleader salary is not really a salary. Pay arrives in three separate pieces: a flat fee for each game day, an hourly rate covering rehearsals and game day hours, and a per appearance fee for community and promotional events. Former Dallas cheerleader Katherine Puryear described that exact structure on Netflix, noting appearance pay climbs with seniority.
That is why no two sources agree on a number. A cheerleader who books 30 appearances in a season takes home several times what a teammate on identical game day pay earns from five. Same uniform, same routines, wildly different W-2.
The season is also short. Nine or ten home games, plus preseason and whatever playoff dates the team earns, means the game day money was never going to add up to rent on its own.
What the per game figure hides is the hours. The Raiderettes complaint filed in January 2014 spelled out the job: at least 10 charity events a season, a minimum of 3 hours of weekly practice, and roughly 9 hours of work on each home game day. Set the $1,250 season contract against all of that and it came to under $5 an hour, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time. The conditioning load sits alongside what the women on our list of the hottest female fitness influencers on Instagram train for, except those women own their content and get paid for it.
Then there is money going the other direction. Raiderettes covered about $650 a season in unreimbursed expenses and got fined $10 for turning up with the wrong pompoms or forgetting a yoga mat. Buffalo Jills paid $650 for uniforms with no travel reimbursement. Several plaintiffs said they finished seasons down money.
Do NFL cheerleaders get paid? The lawsuits that changed it
NFL cheerleaders do get paid, but the current rates exist because women sued. Between 2014 and 2018, at least 10 of the 26 squads then operating took legal action over wage theft, working conditions, harassment or discrimination, per NBC News. Five cases settled for a combined total above $10 million. Two squads shut down instead.
The case that started it: Lacy T. v. The Oakland Raiders
On January 22, 2014, a Raiderette identified in filings as Lacy T. sued in Alameda County Superior Court, represented by Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams. It was the first class action any NFL cheerleading squad had ever brought. The complaint alleged failure to pay minimum wage, failure to pay overtime, failure to reimburse business expenses, and failure to provide meal and rest breaks.
The complaint also drew in the federal government. A US Department of Labor investigation prompted by the case found Raiders cheerleaders were earning roughly $5 an hour, against a California minimum wage of $8 at the time.
The Raiders settled that September for $1.25 million covering 90 women who cheered from 2010 through 2013. Payouts came to roughly $6,000 for each season worked between 2010 and 2012, and about $2,500 for 2013. Around $800,000 reached the cheerleaders, the rest went to legal costs. The Raiders appealed, lost in December 2016, and the California Supreme Court declined to touch it. Afterward the team offered contracts at $9 an hour, then the state minimum.
“I never dreamed that my decision to find a lawyer and file a lawsuit would lead to the kind of sweeping changes we have seen for the women of the NFL.”Lacy T., lead plaintiff
Cincinnati, Tampa Bay and New York followed
Ben-Gal Alexa Brenneman sued the Bengals in February 2014. Her claim: $855 for more than 300 hours of work across the 2013 season, which works out to about $2.85 an hour. The Bengals settled in August 2015 for up to $255,000, paying eligible cheerleaders up to $2,500 per season worked between 2011 and 2013. Brenneman took $5,000 as lead plaintiff. The team denied any wrongdoing.
Tampa Bay settled in May 2015 for up to $825,000. The Jets settled with former Flight Crew members for about $324,000, becoming the fourth team to resolve a cheerleader wage claim.
Buffalo lost its squad over it
Five former Jills filed in New York State Supreme Court in April 2014. They said they were paid nothing for games or practices, were required to make 20 to 35 appearances a season with most of them unpaid, and were subjected to a weekly physical check the complaint called a jiggle test. Two days later Stejon Productions Corp., the company managing the squad, suspended operations.
The Jills have not cheered since. The case ground on for eight years before settling in March 2022 for $7.5 million, with Cumulus Media paying $4 million and the Bills $3.5 million. It is the biggest publicly reported settlement in this whole run of cases, and the squad it was fought over no longer exists.
Houston went to the commissioner
Five former Texans cheerleaders sued in 2018 with Gloria Allred representing them, over pay reported at $7.25 an hour. They hand delivered a letter to Roger Goodell demanding the league step in. An NFL spokesperson told BBC Sport that for teams with cheerleaders, the league has no role in their selection, duties, hours or wages. That has not publicly changed, which is precisely why pay still swings so hard from team to team.
How much do NFL cheerleaders make a year? The floor and the ceiling
How much NFL cheerleaders make a year depends almost entirely on how many appearances they book, so the honest answer is a range rather than a number. The documented floor is $855 for a full season, from the Bengals case. The documented ceiling is Dallas after its 2025 raise, where veterans earn around $75 an hour.
Those two numbers are both real, both from NFL squads, and roughly a decade apart. That gap is the whole story.
Appearance volume is the lever. A cheerleader booking two paid appearances a week across a season earns more from appearances than from every home game put together. Two women on the same squad, same season, same game day rate can end up reporting totals that differ by a factor of three. Neither is lying.
Dallas now sits alone at the top. Jada McLean told the New York Times she was earning $15 an hour and $500 per appearance in her final season, and that veterans would clear $75 an hour under the new deal. The contract changed game day and appearance pay too, though those figures were not disclosed, and it still does not include health insurance. That shifts the job from pocket money toward an actual part time wage, which is not something you could say about it in 2014.
McLean framed the fight as generational rather than personal. She ended her five season run in 2025, after the raise she helped win had already been locked in for the women coming after her.
For context on what that money looks like next to other creator careers, our breakdown of the highest paid YouTubers and their earnings puts the sideline paycheck in perspective fast.
NFL cheerleader salary by team: what is actually confirmed
Confirmed NFL cheerleader salary by team figures exist for only five franchises, every one of them surfaced through a lawsuit or the Netflix series. No NFL team publishes cheerleader pay rates. The table below is limited to numbers that appear in court filings, settlement reporting or on camera.
| Team | Confirmed rate | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas Cowboys | $200 per game until 2019, $400 from 2019 to 2024, then a raise of roughly 400% for 2025. Veterans now around $75 per hour | Wilkins lawsuit and 2019 settlement, AP; America’s Sweethearts season 2; New York Times |
| Raiders (as Oakland) | $125 per home game, $1,250 per season, before 2014. Raised to $9 per hour after settling | Lacy T. complaint, January 2014, and settlement reporting |
| Cincinnati Bengals | $855 for the entire 2013 season, about $2.85 per hour | Alexa Brenneman complaint, February 2014 |
| Houston Texans | $7.25 per hour | 2018 lawsuit filed with Gloria Allred |
| Buffalo Bills | No pay for games or practices. Squad disbanded in April 2014 | Buffalo Jills complaint; $7.5m settlement, March 2022 |
| Baltimore Ravens | $100 per game in 2014 | The Atlantic, 2014, cited by PBS and ESPN |
| Chargers | $75 per game in 2014 | The Atlantic, 2014, cited by PBS and ESPN |
Those Ravens and Chargers numbers are worth sitting with. In 2014, The Atlantic put three squads side by side at $150, $100 and $75 per game, which is a 100% spread between the top and bottom of the league for the same job in the same season. Nothing about that has been standardised since, because there is no league rule to standardise it.
Why you cannot find a Vikings number
Minnesota Vikings cheerleader pay is one of the most searched questions on this topic and one of the least answerable. The Vikings have never published a rate, no Vikings cheerleader has been part of a public wage case, and the figures floating around come from ZipRecruiter pages that generate estimates from job postings across an entire industry category. The same is true for the Broncos, Colts, Chiefs, Seahawks and most of the league. If you see a confident dollar figure attached to those squads, an algorithm produced it.
Six teams with nobody on the sideline
The Bills, Bears, Browns, Packers, Giants and Steelers field no cheer or dance squad. The Giants and Browns never had one. The Steelerettes ended in 1970, the Chicago Honey Bears after the 1985 season, and Green Bay’s official squad in 1988. Buffalo is the only case where a lawsuit was the direct trigger.
Highest paid NFL cheerleaders: Dallas, and then a gap
The highest paid NFL cheerleaders wear the Dallas star. The squad received a raise of approximately 400% for the 2025 season, revealed in episode 7 of America’s Sweethearts season 2 and confirmed by ABC News, which took the question to the Cowboys directly. Individual pay is confidential at every NFL team, so squad level is the only accurate way to answer this.
Dallas got there in two moves. Erica Wilkins sued in 2018 over $7 an hour and a $200 flat game fee. The team settled in September 2019 and doubled game day pay to $400. Six years later it quadrupled again. Asked about the increase, the Cowboys told ABC News only that they were pleased the cheerleaders were happy with the outcome, which is about as much as any NFL franchise has ever said publicly on the subject.
Beyond Dallas, ranking anyone is guesswork, because no other team has put a number in public. The only reason the Cowboys figures exist at all is a lawsuit and a documentary crew with cameras in the locker room. You can meet the women behind those numbers in our roundup of the hottest NFL cheerleaders on Instagram.
How much do professional cheerleaders make outside the NFL?
Professional cheerleaders make broadly similar money across American leagues, generally $75 to $150 per game. CBS reported NBA squad rates at about $200 per home game for the Knicks City Dancers, $150 for the Miami HEAT Dancers, $120 for the Brooklynettes and $100 for the Laker Girls.
| League or level | Reported pay |
|---|---|
| NBA, Knicks City Dancers | About $200 per home game |
| NBA, Miami HEAT Dancers | About $150 per home game |
| NBA, Brooklynettes | About $120 per home game |
| NBA, Laker Girls | About $100 per home game |
| CFL | Roughly $50 to $100 US per game |
| College | No wage. Some programs offer partial scholarships |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has put the median wage for dancers working in spectator sports at $14.58 an hour. The NBA has had its own reckoning too: the Milwaukee Bucks settled with former dancer Lauren Herington over Fair Labor Standards Act claims. Nobody in this line of work is getting rich from the arena.
Where the real money is now: the phone, not the field
For a handful of these women, Instagram now pays better than the NFL does, and the gap is not close. VegasInsider analysed the America’s Sweethearts cast and estimated Victoria Kalina, running an 11.32% engagement rate, could command around $3,750 per sponsored post. At one post a week that is roughly $195,000 a year, several times what any NFL cheerleader earns from a team.
Reece Weaver has since passed 1 million Instagram followers and 1.3 million on TikTok. She left a job at a flower shop to create full time and put out a limited edition collection with boohoo. Megan McElaney signed with Wilhelmina and co-hosts a podcast. Camille Sturdivant is with Rewired Talent. KayDianna MacKenzie runs a podcast plus a paid mock tryout program for women chasing the audition.
None of that was possible a few years ago. A Cowboys cheerleader from the 2021 season told HuffPost she made $12.50 an hour and was not allowed to supplement it with sponsored content at all. The rules loosened and the Netflix audience arrived at roughly the same moment, which is lucky timing for the women who caught it.
The catch is scale, and most of the squad does not have it. A cheerleader with 8,000 followers is not fielding brand offers, and she is the far more typical case. Of the 36 women on the Dallas roster, a handful cleared six figures of following after the Netflix series and the rest did not. The show made stars of the people it chose to follow, which is a different thing from making the job pay.
It also cuts both ways. A large following turns a cheerleader into a public figure who gets scrutinised accordingly, and several of the women on the show have talked about what that does to them. The money is real, but so is the cost, and the sideline contract does not compensate for either. Rates in this bracket look a lot like what our breakdown of how much TikTok influencers make found across the wider creator market: a small top tier earning properly, and a long tail earning close to nothing.
Conclusion
The pay moved because women sued, and Buffalo lost its entire squad for trying. Dallas is the outlier now, not the benchmark, and no other franchise has published a number to match it. The thing worth watching this season is whether anyone follows.
Frequently asked questions
Do NFL cheerleaders get paid?
NFL cheerleaders are paid, but as independent contractors rather than employees. Rates come from a game day fee, an hourly rate and appearance pay. Between 2014 and 2018 at least 10 squads sued their teams over wage violations, and five of those cases settled for a combined total above $10 million.
How much do NFL cheerleaders make a year?
Annual pay ranges enormously and no league average has ever been confirmed by teams. The documented low is $855 for the Bengals’ entire 2013 season. The documented high is Dallas after 2025, where veterans earn around $75 an hour. Appearance bookings, not game day pay, create most of that gap.
How much do NFL cheerleaders make per game?
Confirmed game day rates run from $125 to $400. The Oakland Raiderettes were paid $125 per home game before their 2014 lawsuit. Dallas paid $200 per game until 2019, then $400 through 2024, before a raise of roughly 400% took effect for the 2025 season.
Which NFL team pays cheerleaders the most?
The Dallas Cowboys, by a distance nobody else has publicly challenged. Game day pay doubled from $200 to $400 after a 2019 lawsuit settlement, then rose approximately 400% again for 2025. No other NFL team has published a cheerleader pay rate, so Dallas is the only squad with confirmed figures.
Do NFL cheerleaders get benefits or health insurance?
Health insurance is not standard in NFL cheerleading contracts. Squads are classified as independent contractors, which is the legal basis teams use to exclude benefits, and that classification sat at the centre of the 2014 wage lawsuits. A New York court later ruled the Buffalo Jills were non exempt employees instead.
Is being an NFL cheerleader a full-time job?
The commitment is close to full time and the pay is not. Katherine Puryear called it full time commitment with part time pay on America’s Sweethearts. The Raiderettes complaint documented 3 hours of weekly practice, 10 charity events and 9 hour game days. Most cheerleaders hold a second job.
Do NFL cheerleaders get paid for practice and rehearsals?
Rehearsal pay depends on the team and is one of the things the lawsuits changed. The Buffalo Jills complaint alleged no pay for games or practices at all. After settling, the Raiders moved to $9 an hour covering mandatory events. Dallas pays an hourly rate covering both practices and game days.
Do NFL cheerleaders get paid extra for the Super Bowl?
No NFL team has published a Super Bowl pay policy for cheerleaders, so any specific figure you find is an estimate. What is confirmed is that cheerleaders are contractors, which places them outside the winning share players receive and outside the automatic championship ring distribution teams make to players and staff.
Who are the highest paid NFL cheerleaders?
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are the highest paid squad following their 2025 raise. No NFL team discloses individual cheerleader pay and no verified ranking of individuals exists. Any article pairing a named cheerleader with a specific salary figure is estimating, not reporting, and should be read that way.
How much do professional cheerleaders make outside the NFL?
Pay sits in a similar range across leagues. CBS reported NBA rates from about $100 per home game for the Laker Girls up to $200 for the Knicks City Dancers. CFL squads earn roughly $50 to $100 US per game. College cheerleaders receive no wage, though some programs offer partial scholarships.
How much do Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders make?
Dallas paid $400 per game from 2019 until a raise of approximately 400% took effect for the 2025 season, with veterans now earning around $75 an hour according to the New York Times. A full breakdown of Cowboys pay is coming separately.
Do NFL cheerleaders make money from Instagram and brand deals?
The ones with a following make considerably more from Instagram than from their team. VegasInsider estimated Victoria Kalina could command about $3,750 per sponsored post. Reece Weaver passed 1 million followers and released a boohoo collection. A 2021 Cowboys cheerleader told HuffPost sponsored content was banned outright back then.
