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One to Keep An Eye On: Cheerleader Rights Bill (California)


I normally reserve the "One to Keep An Eye On" posts for employment and labor law cases that are being litigated around the country.  However, this one instead focuses on a piece of legislation in California that I think readers would be interested to follow.


Recently, State Rep. Lorena Gonzalez, introduced a piece of legislation in California that would force NFL teams to pay cheerleaders minimum wage, overtime, and workers compensation.  This legislation is important, because if this bill is passed, it would treat cheerleaders as employees under California law.  

Rep. Gonzalez has stated that "If you look at California law, it is clear that these girls [the cheerleaders] are signing as far as contracts they're being treated as employees if not compensated as employees."  I would agree with her in that regard as a few of the contracts I have seen (namely the contract to cheer for the Raiders) seem to set up the working relationship in the employee context, but readers of the blog are all too aware that the cheerleaders are not being paid as employees.

If the legislation is passed, it would bring the cheerleaders' wages up to $9.00 per hour.  Note that it has been alleged that the Raiders pay their cheerleaders an average of $5.00 per hour.

The question is whether this bill has enough momentum to get pushed through.  Time will tell, but with all the attention on the cheerleader lawsuits over allegedly inadequate pay, this certainly seems like the time for this bill to be presented.


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