California Cheerleaders Will Receive Employee Rights With New Law

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law Wednesday gives professional sports cheerleaders employee benefits such as minimum wage, overtime and travel reimbursement.

Oakland Raiders cheerleaders have sued in the past, alleging that they were paid just $1,250 for hundreds of hours of work over an entire year and that they were strictly fined for minor mishaps. They also said they were forced to pay for travel for appearances like photo shoots.

The bill from California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a former high school and college cheerleader herself, applies to all professional cheerleaders in California, which would also include the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers.

“We would never tolerate shortchanging of women workers at any other workplace. An NFL game should be no different,” Gonzalez said in a news release. “Today we took an important step toward ensuring that multi-billion dollar sports teams treat cheerleaders with the same dignity and respect as every other employee who makes the game-day experience special.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons