Skip to main content

From Pom Poms to the Courtroom, Pt. 2 - Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleader's Suit Over Wages


For those keeping score at home, a few weeks ago, an Oakland Raiders cheerleader filed a  wage and hour suit against her employer (see the blog here: http://themajorityopinion.blogspot.com/2014/01/from-pom-poms-to-courtroom-oakland.html). Apparently as a result of that suit, a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader filed a class action complaint against the Bengals organization a few weeks ago and alleged similar wage and hour issues.  According to the complaint, Cincinnati Bengals cheerleaders (cleverly referred to as "Ben-Gals") are not paid for the hours that they attend for practice, promote the team calendar, and attend for mandatory charity events.  The complaint further alleged that the cheerleaders work about 300 hours a year for the Bengals organization and are paid, "at most, $90 for each home football game at which they cheer."  If these claims are true, there are Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations that the Bengals could be liable for. 

As an aside, at least one team, the Super Bowl winning Seattle Seahawks, appears to pay their cheerleaders a wage that is in line with the FLSA.  The "Sea-Gals" (oh these NFL teams with their clever names for their cheerleaders...) are paid an hourly wage for "all hours worked" and "applicable overtime."  (A copy of the Rules for the Sea-Gals, including the mention regarding compensation, can be found here:  Sea-Gals Rules)

Interesting to note, the cheerleader who brought the suit against the Bengals said she did so as a result of the the suit brought by the Oakland Raiders cheerleader a few weeks ago.  It will be interesting to keep an eye on how many other NFL cheerleader lawsuits emerge in the coming weeks and months.  There have been discussions and debates for several years about how little NFL cheerleaders are paid for their work, especially given the long hours the cheerleaders work and relatively miniscule pay that teams have paid in return.  The Raiders lawsuit just might be the tip of the iceberg for these type of wage and hour suits brought by NFL cheerleaders...

A copy of the complaint can be found here:  http://media.nbcbayarea.com/documents/Bengals.pdf

Special thanks to Lisa Hernandez of the NBC Bay Area affiliate for additional information on the topic:  http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Bengals-Cheerleader-Sues-Team-Following-Oakland-Raiderettes-Claim--245421651.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more