After multiple lawsuits were filed against teams in the NFL, such as the Oakland Raiders, for unfair wage practices in regard to paying their cheerleaders, a suit has now been filed in the NBA against the Milwaukee Bucks for poor wage practices.
Leading the charge was Lauren Herington, a 22-year-old former cheerleader for the Milwaukee Bucks, who claims that during her time as a Bucks cheerleader, her and her colleagues were subjected to prolific wage abuse.
The suit’s main claim is that the cheerleaders were paid a rate of $3.50-$4.50 an hour — an obvious minimum wage violation. Further, they were not paid time-and-a-half for weeks over 40 hours.
According to ThinkProgress:
“The Bucks pays cheerleaders $30 per practice, $65 per home game, and $50 for each special appearance such as charity events. Practices and workout sessions come to 20 to 30 hours a week, and they are also required to arrive two and a half hours before the start of each game. The suit also says that cheerleaders have to spend time complying with personal appearance rules by visiting salons as well as maintaining uniforms with their money.”
Furthermore, Herington’s lawyer, Scott Anderson, has claimed that because of the wage practices the cheerleaders are “indentured servants with pom poms” — a pretty hard-hitting use of the word “servant.”
Milwaukee Bucks management couldn’t be reached for comment, which is no great surprise; they refused to comment on the actual issue, itself, but instead, a team spokesperson offered this:
“We take these issues seriously and are looking into the matter.”
The irony behind the suit is that it comes after five NFL teams had suits filed against them for similar wage practices. We can see a domino effect already starting.
The good news is the legislators have been prompted to take action similar to what was passed in California and New York regarding cheerleader wages.
It’s hard to believe a team that had a projected net profit in 2014 of $14.8 million can’t pay their workers a living wage.
Featured image by Keith Allison, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
