Oakland Raiders settle cheerleader lawsuit for $1.25 million

In January, two members of the Oakland “Raiderettes” cheerleading team filed a class action lawsuit for wage theft against the Oakland Raiders football team. Today, the Raiders elected to put this behind them by settling the lawsuit for $1.25 million.

More from Las Vegas Raiders

An estimated 90 current and former members of the Raiderettes will receive $6,000 in back pay for every season from 2010-2012. They will be compensated $2,500 for the 2013 season (after the lawsuit was filed, the team increased their salary to roughly minimum wage). Lacy T. and Sarah G., the two women who filed the lawsuit, will receive an extra $10,000 for filing the suit.

The settlement also prevents the team from fining Raiderette members for trivial matters such as wearing the wrong color of nail polish of failing to bring the correct pom poms to practice. The settlement did not require the team to throw out the handbook, which has raised quite a fuss since it went public with the lawsuit.

When you think about it, $1.25 million is a really small piece of the NFL pie.

After the Raiderettes filed their suit, cheerleaders for the Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New York Jets also filed similar suits. This will likely expedite the settlement of those cases as well.

The Raiders also agreed in July to triple the salary for the Raiderettes squad to help something like this happening in the future.

Leslie Levy, one of the attorneys for the Raiderettes, stated “If there are any teams out there that have not changed their policy, I hope they realize it’s going to be far less expensive for them to do that than to continue with the wage theft.”

Let’s see how many teams heed the warning.

Home/Las Vegas Raiders