But aren’t minimum wage laws designed precisely to avert this sort of exploitation?
In the absence of minimum wage laws, there would probably be a whole bunch of industries that could convince people to work at ridiculously low levels of remuneration. Doesn’t make it right.
Exactly.
This suit was just settled by another California organization accused of getting cute with wages and hours:
But getting cute like this with definitions of “required” and “voluntary” is prohibited by many employment laws, both federal and state.
In California, for example, you can’t require employees to attend a training meeting or some other gathering without compensating them. And calling the meeting “voluntary” when it really isn’t will get you slapped by the California Department of Industrial Relations in very quick fashion.
If these cheerleaders could show, for example, that missing an allegedly voluntary rehearsal or charity appearance would cause them to lose their position on the cheerleading team, the CDIR would be very unlikely to accept that the rehearsal or charity event was voluntary, no matter what the team claimed. And if it’s not really voluntary, it would probably then be defined as part of their employment, and therefore subject to the state’s wage laws.
I don’t give a flying fuck how desirable it is to be a cheerleader; they should be paid properly under the state’s employment law. Being a member of an NFL football team is also an incredibly desirable job, with boys and young men all over America beating each others’ brains in every weekend trying to become one of the chosen few, and those who are selected rightly get paid handsomely for the job. I’m not arguing that cheerleaders should be paid like players, but there’s no reason for them to be expected to work for basically nothing just because there are other young women willing to take their place.
This will be interesting to see how it plays out.
On the one hand, it’s hard for me to get worked up over something like this. After all, it’s not like anyone is forcing these girls to work as a cheerleader, and I never thought of a cheerleader as a full time occupation that someone could make a living doing it.
However, I do have trouble with the real perception that these women are being exploited. No one should be exploited like this, and if they are not seeing any money from the calendar sales, or any of the “mandatory” events they are required to be a part of, then that’s just not right.
I imagine this would be a great opportunity for a young woman to do for a year or two if she was living at home, she loved to dance, and enjoyed the exposure of being an NFL cheerleader. But from what I read in that article and in this thread, they are really getting shafted. I don’t care if there ARE a hundred women waiting to take a spot if someone quits; that’s not the point.
There are the intangible benefits… Meeting, dating and possibly marrying an NFL football player (yeah, yeah… i know fraternization is against the rules and frowned on, but it has happened and will probably continue to happen. Boys being boys and girls being girls and all that.). And hell, if I was only getting $125 a game, would I really give a shit if I was fired for dating a player? Doubtful.
They also, as others point out, get to be in front of 80,000 sets of eyeballs, which some people really want. The exposure could land them other jobs in modeling, dance, and maybe some other stuff. Although I don’t know how many of them actually make it from being a cheerleader to TV, a recording contract, or something else. But there is always a Paula Abdul out there to point to.
No. To me, as long as they are representing the team, the team should be responsible for paying them a fair wage. I hope the NFL does the right thing and coughs up the dough.
Or, do what many of us have been hoping for since cheerleaders started appearing on sidelines throughout the NFL. Get rid of them.
Thank god the Steelers haven’t put cheerleaders on the sidelines. It is silly for a pro team in any sport to have cheerleaders. Yeah, I like looking at them, but they are the second most useless thing on an NFL sideline at every game. (NFL sideline reporters being number 1).
College is where a cheerleader’s career should end. But if NFL teams want to continue to have these large breasted, firm-assed, male fantasy-eye candy gracing the sidelines, pay them a decent wage, you cheap bastards!
To be clear, I wasn’t making the argument myself that the practices weren’t really mandatory. I just think that that’s the argument that the team is likely to make, and thus that’ll be the issue that the courts will need to decide.
And completely independent of the question of what’s legally required, I’m absolutely amazed that they don’t even cover their travel expenses.
The Raiderettes’ calendar is currently marked down from $14.99 to $5, which is understandable given the need for 2014 calendars going down once 2014 is underway.
Just so we are clear… They are talking about travel expenses to local events, in the Oakland area, not flights to away games.
I’m not saying they shouldn’t be reimbursed for the travel, because they should be. But it’s not as bad as it could be if they were required to fly all over the countey on their own dime.
And I’m sure that if the Raiders made the Super Bowl, the team would pay for the cheerleaders to travel, as well as their hotel and food. It’s just that they haven’t had to worry about such things for over a decade now.
The one thing i find particularky agregeous, is that they are required to use a team appointed hair stylist, and that costs a few hundred dollars per visit. That’s insane. Why would the team have to approve the hair stylist? I’m telling you right now, no one is looking at their hair. Once the wind blows, it’s a mess anyway. Unless they are bald, no one notices anything above the neck.
Also seems to be a lot of power in the position to determine if a cheerleader is “soft” and must sit out for the game. “Excuse me, but it would appear that you are 4.9 lbs over your normal weight. And you are looking “soft”. I’m afraid if you don’t come up with a solution, you will miss this weekend’s game.”
<zip>
Ah! Things are firming up already! Keep it up!
I have no cite for this, but living in SoCal I’ve seen lots of puff pieces about the Laker Girls especially, but also the Charger Girls and whatever they’re calling the Clipper Girls these days; and I’ve always understood that the girls make very little on a per game basis, but can make a decent amount of money for calendars and appearances. I’ll be interested to find out if it’s just the Raiders who are robbing these girls blind or if I’ve been wrong about their pay this whole time.
I don’t think it would surprise anyone to learn that it’s just the Raiders though, would it? I doubt there’s a single thing that that organization really does right.
Deadspin just posted an article discussing the job requirements for being a Ravens cheerleader (and, no, a felony record is not on the list).
While Baltimore seems to have avoided the wage-and-hours problems that the Raiders are facing, the story still makes the whole thing seem pretty damn exploitative. At the bottom of the story, you can view a file with all the rules and regulations the cheerleaders are required to follow. And the ridiculous weight assessment strategy discussed in the article is appalling.
I think what gets me the most is how fucking cheap-ass these teams are. Baltimore made the Superbowl last year, and they couldn’t even spring for Southwest tickets from BWI to New Orleans for the cheerleaders. Instead, they got the pleasure of an 18-hour bus ride. Nice!
I have to say, any Raven cheerleader dumb enough to get on an 18-hour bus ride to go to the Super Bowl, so they could watch Ray Lewis do his pre-game “look at me, I’ve got epilepsy” dance, doesn’t get my sympathy.
In all seriousness, this is just another reason to hate the Ravens.
I would think that if the Cheerleaders asked the bus driver to go somewhere else for the week, or maybe just stay home, and never get on the bus in the first place, that would have caused enough negative publicity to maybe embarrass the Ravens into doing the right things. Or not.
There must be some extraordinary side benefits that make women want to be a part of the team, and it isn’t money, obviously. So what are they? No one should be subjected to the kind of stuff I’m reading, and i really can’t understand how they don’t have 100% turnover… So what aren’t we being told?
It’s laid out in the article. They love being at games.
The Deadspin report confirms what the Raiders cheerleaders said in their suit. They are getting way under paid.
I understand how much fun it is to be on the sidelines seeing the game. There is prestige being part of a NFL team. But they deserve fair pay.
Well, there goes my hope that we could discuss a serious labor issue without getting into asinine team-based pissing contests. If you have any evidence that the Ravens’ treatment of their cheerleaders is somehow unique or unusual, by all means present it.
Hey, I remember you!
I actually had an over/under time on how long it would take you to respond.
I guessed 2 hours.
I was wrong. You beat my guess by 55 minutes!
You should really try harder to not live up to my expectations.
There is no pissing contest here, except the one you have imagined in your head. I am sure that if the DeadSpin article was about the Raiderettes, a snide comment about the Raider organization wouldn’t have registered on your Official NFL Baltimore Raven “Fan-Offended” Meter! TM
The Ravens treat their cheerleaders worse than the Steelers do. But that’s because the Steelers don’t have cheerleaders. (YOU KNEW THAT!!!) That’s the best case of all. Because NO NFL team is going to want to keep their cheerleaders around if they have to deal with lawsuits and bad publicity. They are completely irrelevant (the cheerleaders, not the lawsuits).
And they obviously don’t respect them. A bus trip to the Super Bowl? Seriously?
There is a Super Bowl coming up this week. Let’s see how the Seahawks and Broncos get their cheerleaders there. Maybe we can have an actual apples-to-apples comparison between the Ravens fine organization and the Broncos and Seahawks, and how the two teams this year treat their satin kittens.
My favorite part of your post was “Well, there goes my hope that we could discuss a serious labor issue without getting into asinine team-based pissing contests.”
That made me laugh out loud! Thank you for that! I figured you’d be more upset that I mocked the “Ray Lewis Human Spastic Peacock Strut”.
You can still have a serious labor issue discussion. Just ignore my (or anyone else’s) posts that get your panties in a wad. That should be easy to do. Just do a keyword search on “Ravens”.
And if you have a need to get “even”, feel free to make fun of the fact that the Steelers don’t have cheerleaders. Or something else. I promise not to reply all butt-hurt. Heck, I promise not to reply! Woo hoo! 
The fact that they had to spell that out for them so explicitly boggles the mind, but I am sure the lawyers got together and made sure they spelled out that the team had done all they could do to warn the cheerleaders of the dangers associated with going to player-hosted parties. If one would actually get raped, and the team didn’t have something like this in writing, I am guessing some legal mind thought the victim would have grounds to sue the organization. Don’t know if that’s true, but better safe than sorry.
Serious question here. If they have so many concerns, and they are treating them so badly as employees, why not just do away with them completely? Would there be any actual fan backlash?
Other than the Cowboys, I don’t think any team is defined by their cheerleaders. And even the Cowboys could live without them, I’m sure. But I am guessing the Cowboy cheerleaders generate a lot of revenue for the team, so they won’t be going anywhere.
Hey, genius, if you’ll remember, I was the one who first criticized the Ravens for that. Do you recall that? It’s in the post just a few above yours. Did you read it? Did you understand it?
I don’t give a flying fuck what you think of Ray Lewis’s dance. Personally, I think it looks ridiculous. I was embarrassed for the guy every time he did it.
But my aim in this thread really was, as I suggested, to “discuss a serious labor issue without getting into asinine team-based pissing contests.” I think that the fact that it was me who introduced the Deadspin story about the Ravens, and it was me who criticized my own team, would be enough evidence of that for even you to understand.
See, you demonstrate further with every “argument” you make that you don’t have a fucking clue. I’m really not interested in having a pissing contest between teams. I think that the Steelers’ lack of a cheerleading squad is an example the whole NFL should follow, and it’s something that I admire about the team. I see no reason for having a bunch of scantily-clad women dancing around on the sidelines at all. But if teams are going to have cheerleaders, they should be treated well and paid properly. That’s all I’m concerned about in this thread. Period. If you want to threadshit further, I’ll just ignore it.
The better question is, why don’t teams with cheerleaders/dancers pay them a fair rate? The NFL and its teams are swimming in cash.
Because they don’t have to.
What a bunch of whiny babies. They don’t pay enough? Then don’t do it. It’s not like anyone is forcing you.
Why have any labor and safety laws at all?