The DCC members previously made $48k less per year than the mascot, as revealed in lawsuit

The DCC squad recently received a 400 per cent pay rise, but as it turns out prior to the increase they were making considerably less than the Dallas Cowboys mascot, as revealed in a shocking lawsuit.

In 2018, former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Erica Wilkins filed a federal lawsuit against the team, alleging that she wasn’t paid overtime and that the mascot made more money than her.

Erica was with DCC from 2014 to 2017 and was seeking “unpaid overtime wages, minimum wages, and all other available damages.” She claimed that Rowdy, the Dallas Cowboys mascot, made $48,500 more than the cheerleaders did per year.

The lawsuit states that Erica’s hourly rate was $8 but that the mascot made $25 per hour and took home around $65k per year. In contrast, Erica’s yearly wages ranged from around $5,818 to $16,516.3

The lawsuit argued that the cheerleaders’ work required “equal skill, effort, and responsibility” under similar conditions as the mascot’s, as both appeared at games, corporate events, and camps, making the pay gap a violation of the federal Equal Pay Act’s prohibition on sex-based wage discrimination.

Her attorney, Allen Vaught, stated in an in interview: “They’ve got this mascot Rowdy who makes $65,000 a year” while the cheerleaders are ‘struggling to get by.’ Nobody’s asking to get rich. They just want to get paid fair.”

Erica told The New York Post at the time that whilst she knew that DCC was “prestigious” that “at the end of the day, prestige doesn’t pay my rent. I can’t walk down to my leasing office and hand them my uniform for the month.”

And her lawsuit ended up paying off big time as changes to the pay of the squad became public, with the hourly practice rate rising from $8 to $12, and game-day pay doubling from $200 to $400.

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