Netflix’s ‘America’s Sweethearts’ Reveals That a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Makes About as Much as A Full Time Chick-fil-A Worker

How ’bout them Cowboys?

Netflix’s new docuseries about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has already cracked the streamer’s vaunted Top 10 list. From director Greg Whiteley (Cheer, Last Chance U), America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders follows the 2023-24 squad from start to finish, giving fans unfiltered access into the wild ups and downs from auditions, training camp, and the regular season.

Becoming a member of the America’s Sweethearts squad is no easy feat. Hundreds of hopefuls compete, including many returning veteran candidates hoping to keep their spots, and when the music stops 44 cheerleaders are invited to training camp with 36 making the team. The job is one of the most high-profile positions in the competitive world of dance, but the pay isn’t exactly commensurate with the experience.

One DCC veteran, Kat Puryear, revealed on America’s Sweethearts that she made about as much as a substitute teacher or full-time Chick-fil-A worker as a Cowboys cheerleader.

“There’s a lot of cynicism around pay for NFL cheerleaders and as it should be,” EVP and Chief Brand Officer of the Dallas Cowboys Charlotte Jones said in the first episode of the doc. “They’re not paid a lot. But the facts are that they actually don’t come here for the money; they come here for something that’s actually bigger than that to them. They have a passion for dance.”

Continued Jones, “They have a chance to feel like they’re valued, that they’re special, and that they are making a difference. When the women come here they find their passion, and they find their purpose.”

You may be wondering if you can pay rent solely with passion and/or purpose. Great question. Short answer? No. But the long answer, interestingly enough, is also no.

Most of the cheerleaders hold down full-time jobs, arriving at practice in the evening and sometimes dancing until the early morning hours. Director Greg Whiteley recently told Glamour that he “never got a clean answer” in regards to an exact DCC salary, and that he’s learned that “dancers the world over are underpaid,” with the Cowboys being on the higher end of the pay scale on a per-hour basis.

“Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are on the highest end of that [NFL cheer] pay scale,” Whiteley said. “I’ve heard horror stories of what a typical NFL cheerleader [makes], but I think the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders fall into a new category. None of them are rich. None of them are getting paid a ton, but it isn’t the same dearth of payment that I think other NFL cheerleaders have to experience.”

So exactly how much does a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader earn in a season? Sports Illustrated notes that they “reportedly make $500 per game” ($10,000 for a season), with additional income made through team-related events and public appearances. A September 2022 article from NBC Sports Boston reported that NFL cheerleaders made about $150/game, with the highest-paid performers, the Cowboys and Panthers cheerleaders, earning about $15-20 an hour ($500 per game). Ziprecruiter estimates that the average wage for an NFL cheerleader is $21.68 an hour.

Fun fact: The NFL generated $18 billion in revenue across the 2022 season, with an estimated $19 billion for 2023. Give me a C! Give me an H! Give me an E-A-P! What does that spell? Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!

All seven episodes of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are now streaming on Netflix.