Cowboys Cheerleaders Secure 400% Pay Hike Ahead of 2025 Season
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders will earn up to $75 per hour next season after negotiating a roughly 400% wage increase.
I’m Maya Rivers twirling metaphors in a world of pom-poms and pay stubs, compelled to craft verse from the cadence of fair wages and team spirit.
The spotlight falls not on touchdown passes but on a group of determined women who turned chants and high kicks into a collective call for equity. Jada McLean, 25, emerged as both poet and warrior, leading her fellow Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders into serious contract talks. At Netflix’s Summer Break event in Santa Monica on July 17, she revealed that this fight was “less about me and more about the girls who come after me.”
In a move that reads like revolutionary prose, the squad secured a raise from a $15-per-hour baseline in 2024 to veterans earning as much as $75 per hour in 2025. “I wanted to leave this organization better than I came in,” Jada told E! News. Her words echo with the weight of lived struggle—remnants of late-night rent bills and earlier sacrifices—now replaced by a vision of financial security for every rookie and veteran on the roster.
Kelly Villares, a newcomer last year and full of fresh hope, shared her gratitude at the same Netflix gathering. “I just made the team, and having leaders like Jada who stand up for what is right means the absolute world,” she said. Kelly’s voice trembles with inspiration as she imagines taking up the mantle one day, guiding future cheerleaders to dare for more than just applause under stadium lights.
Jada previously detailed her challenges to The New York Times in June, admitting that $15 an hour sometimes made the American dream feel out of reach. Now, with this landmark agreement, the journey transforms into a lyrical series of first-class flights, emergency funds, and unhurried weekend brunches—luxuries that once seemed poetic fantasies.
Beyond the star-tinted helmets of Texas, the story resonates with other high-profile performers. Jenna Johnson, winner of Dancing With the Stars season 33, told E! News that pro dancers earn between $1,200 and $1,600 per episode, climbing to $100,000 per season, while celebrities start at $125,000. Johnson noted that champions receive extra bonuses up to $50,000—proof that performance paychecks often deserve an encore.
Like a sonnet unfolding in gridiron gloss, this raise transcends dollars. It marks a bold stanza in the anthem of athletes-turned-advocates, reminding us that poetry and progress can coexist. And so, as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders step into a new era of empowerment and equity, we watch their story with rapt attention, pen in hand.
And thus, the final verse finds its place under the stadium lights, not as an end but as the dawn of a brighter chorus.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and E! News, The New York Times
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
