• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Bolek Besser Glesius LLC

Bolek Besser Glesius LLC

Devoted to Justice

  • Home
  • Practice Areas
    • Employment Law
      • Wrongful Termination
      • Workplace Retaliation & Whistleblower Cases
      • Sexual Harassment
      • Age Discrimination
      • Disability Discrimination
      • Pregnancy Discrimination
      • Race Discrimination
      • Family Medical Leave Act
      • Overtime Pay and Minimum Wage
      • Employment Contracts & Severance Packages
      • Restrictive Covenants & Non-Compete Agreements
      • Executive Compensation
      • View All
    • First Amendment Lawyers
      • Ohio Free Speech Attorneys
        • Government Employee Free Speech
        • Student Free Speech Rights in Ohio
        • Significant Ohio Free Speech Cases
      • Religious Freedom
    • Appellate Practice
    • Small Business Litigation
  • About Us
    • Cathleen M. Bolek
    • Matthew D. Besser
    • Amy S. Glesius
  • Results
  • FAQ
  • Articles
  • BBG Newsroom
  • Contact
  • Blog
(216) 464-3004
Contact Us Now
GET HELP NOW
CALL US NOW

$1.25 Million Settlement in NFL Cheerleader Wage and Hour Case

September 5, 2014 By Matthew Besser Leave a Comment

Back in February, I wrote about two separate minimum wage lawsuits brought by NFL cheerleaders against their respective teams, one against the Oakland Raiders and one against the Cincinnati Bengals. This week, the parties in the Raiders lawsuit announced they have reached a tentative $1.25 million settlement.

Raiderettes
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The Fair Labor Standards Act generally requires employers to pay employees at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. It also requires employers to pay non-exempt employees overtime at time-and-a-half their hourly rate for every hour worked over forty per week. Ohio’s minimum wage and overtime law is essentially the same.

In January, two former cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders filed a class action lawsuit against the team for failing to pay its cheerleaders (known as the “Raiderettes”) minimum wage. The lawsuit also alleged the team unlawfully failed to reimburse the cheerleaders for business expenses and deducted from their salary for minor infractions like wearing the wrong color nail polish. In what might be considered a tacit admission of liability, during the course of the lawsuit, the Raiders raised the salary for the cheerleaders to $9.00 an hour, agreed to start reimbursing them for business expenses, and agreed to stop deducting from the cheerleaders’ wages for minor infractions.

This week, the parties to the Raiders lawsuit announced they had reached a settlement, which covers 90 cheerleaders who worked for the team from 2010 to 2013. The proposed settlement calls for each cheerleader to receive $6,000 for the 2010 through 2012 seasons, and $2,500 for the 2013 season. As is typical in minimum wage or overtime pay lawsuits, the settlement must first be approved by the Court.

Although the wage lawsuit against the Raiders appears to be coming to a close, the similar lawsuit against the Cincinnati Bengals remains pending. There are also similar wage and hour lawsuits pending against the Buffalo Bills, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the New York Jets. As I noted in my prior blog post, the Cleveland Browns do not have cheerleaders. No word on what the Browns pay their new mascot, Swagger.

If you feel your employer has wrongfully failed to pay you minimum wage or overtime pay, contact an experienced Cleveland, Ohio employment lawyer today.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

U.S. News Best Law Firms 2019 BadgeBest Lawyers Amy Glesius Lawyer of the Year BadgeMartindale AV Rated BadgeSuper Lawyers Top 100 Badge BBB Accredited Business BadgeMillion Dollar Advocates Badge

Contact Us Now

  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

U.S. News Best Law Firms 2019 BadgeBest Lawyers Amy Glesius Lawyer of the Year BadgeSuper Lawyers Top 100 BadgeMartindale AV Rated BadgeBBB Accredited Business Badge

Contact Us Now

  • Hidden
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Footer

Social

Follow along on social media.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Our Cleveland Office

Monarch Centre

5885 Landerbrook Drive, Suite 302

Cleveland, OH 44124

Contact Now

Phone: 216-464-3004

Disclaimer | Privacy Policy

Contact Our Firm

Monarch Centre

5885 Landerbrook Drive, Suite 302

Cleveland, OH 44124

Contact Now

Phone: 216-464-3004

Disclaimer

Copyright © 2023 · Business Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • Home
  • Practice Areas
    ▼
    • Employment Law
      ▼
      • Wrongful Termination
      • Workplace Retaliation & Whistleblower Cases
      • Sexual Harassment
      • Age Discrimination
      • Disability Discrimination
      • Pregnancy Discrimination
      • Race Discrimination
      • Family Medical Leave Act
      • Overtime Pay and Minimum Wage
      • Employment Contracts & Severance Packages
      • Restrictive Covenants & Non-Compete Agreements
      • Executive Compensation
      • View All
    • First Amendment Lawyers
      ▼
      • Ohio Free Speech Attorneys
        ▼
        • Government Employee Free Speech
        • Student Free Speech Rights in Ohio
        • Significant Ohio Free Speech Cases
      • Religious Freedom
    • Appellate Practice
    • Small Business Litigation
  • About Us
    ▼
    • Cathleen M. Bolek
    • Matthew D. Besser
    • Amy S. Glesius
  • Results
  • FAQ
  • Articles
  • BBG Newsroom
  • Contact
  • Blog