How much do NBA cheerleaders make?

Lauren Herington was 19 years old when she learned she had been selected as an NBA dancer for the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2013-14 season. She never imagined that just a few years later she would be suing the team for unfair pay.

When Herington joined the Bucks, she was excited, to say the least. Working for the NBA had long been her dream. Within 24 hours of receiving the offer, she moved to Milwaukee and soon after began attending cheerleading training camp. But her dream quickly began to fall apart.

Herington’s salary was only mentioned after the month-long training camp ended. According to the lawsuit, Herington received $30 for training, $65 for each home game and $50 for each public appearance. “The appearances could last 30 minutes or four hours, it all depended. Regardless, you received the flat rate of $50.”

“I was shocked when I saw the payment,” she tells PS. At the time, Herington was paying $1,000 a month for her new apartment and a few hundred dollars for a car, plus the cost of living and staying in a city – far from the rural town she grew up in, five hours away. “I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to survive?'” she says.

Her living expenses weren’t the only expense she was concerned about. According to Herington’s lawsuit, the Bucks required dancers to meet any beauty standards set by the coach. That could mean a woman with short hair had to get extensions or continue to dye or re-dye her hair if the captain suggested that for her.

In addition to hair, dancers also had to pay for other cosmetic treatments, including nails, tanning, waxing, false eyelashes and even special cleaning of the uniform, Herinton claims. “My uniform was from the previous season and was dirty with tanning lotion or makeup, and I still had to pay as if it was a new uniform; and then it had to be cleaned,” explains the former Bucks dancer. “The same went for pom-poms. If they were crushed or even slightly damaged, we had to pay for new ones.”

Herington eventually took on two part-time jobs to supplement her income, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to afford to become a cheerleader in the NBA. She was also still in school.

Additionally, being on the team came with high fitness demands, including about 15 to 20 hours of practice per week, 2.5 hours before the start of home games and 5 to 10 hours of practice per week, Herington alleged in her lawsuit. Between practices, training or games, appearances, school and her other jobs, Herington’s days sometimes started at 5 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m. She often worked 100 hours per week.

Herington says she was lucky to have a strong support system consisting of her family and new work and school friends, all of whom confirmed her views about the NBA at the time. “I was exhausted all the time and so many of my friends told me that this wasn’t normal. That the treatment and the low pay wasn’t worth it,” the dancer recalls.

The supportive pressure was enough to convince Herington to leave the team, but it wasn’t until a few years later that she realized how much the conditions were affecting her confidence, mental health and income, and she went to lawyers to see if the case was worth pursuing. In 2018, the case was settled for $250,000, split among about 40 dancers (from the 2008 to 2013 seasons), to be used as back pay for her work as an NBA dancer.

In response to the settlement, the Bucks said in a statement: “While we deny the allegations made in the lawsuit, we have agreed to settle the matter to avoid a lengthy and costly litigation. We greatly value the contributions of our dancers and all of our employees and will treat them fairly and in accordance with federal and state laws.”

So has there been any progress?

To date, Herington is the only dancer to have sued to get more money from the NBA, but her actions may have been a wake-up call. Now, 10 years later, the NBA seems to have made progress on the salary front, but the subject is still pretty taboo.

PS reached out to more than 60 current and former NBA cheerleaders, all of whom expressed interest in commenting but ultimately declined to speak out of fear of losing their contracts.

“I wish I could, but unfortunately it’s not my place to say.”; “It’s a big topic in the NBA, but since I’m currently on a team, I can’t talk about it.”; “I don’t get paid particularly well, but it’s always been my dream to work in the NBA, so I can’t talk about it for fear of risking it.” These are just some of the responses PS received.

A June 2024 post on job search and company review site GlassDoor states that the hourly wage for a dancer (specifically with the LA Clippers) ranges from $29 to $47 per hour, including base salary and benefits—which is exactly what two of the cheerleaders who agreed to speak anonymously told PS. In a video posted last year, TikToker Alex Hoffman said she makes $17 per hour as an NBA cheerleader (for the Chicago Bulls, according to her LinkedIn profile).

How come the pay is so low anyway?

Like cheerleading in the NFL, cheerleading in the NBA is still considered a part-time job, which partly explains the pay. Herington and two other anonymous dancers PS spoke to described seeing the following sentence in their contract: “It’s a part-time job with a full-time commitment.”

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, dancers may memorize between 40 and 50 routines per season, which requires more time and commitment than the normal bi-weekly practice. They are also expected to participate in community performances off the court and serve as role models and representatives for the team and league.

“They hold you to very high standards, but that’s not what they pay you. It’s discouraging and they expect you to put in so much time and effort to achieve that,” Herington says.

In addition, the NBA has enough money to pay its cheerleaders a full-time salary. The average NBA team is worth $4 billion, according to Sportico, and the NBA as a whole is worth $120 billion. In 2023, the highest-paid NBA basketball player earned $51.9 million before taxes.

The cheerleaders we spoke to don’t know why pay is so low, but believe it may be due to sexism and the fact that the majority of male employees in the sports industry don’t view cheerleaders as equals.

Why it can be so hard to stand up for the cause as an NBA cheerleader

Shortly after Herington’s lawsuit was settled in 2018, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to eliminate the women’s dance team entirely and have not reinstated it since, opting instead for a mixed breakdancing and tumbling team. So, in the eyes of some, the fear of speaking out is understandable.

Additionally, Herington says many dancers have waited their entire lives to achieve success at the NBA level, and since that’s the highest level one can reach, they end up “drinking the Kool Aid” and looking past the ups and downs to stay.

“I told a few girls about my frustration and they said, ‘You know, this really sucks. But what can we do? We just have to accept it and move on,'” Herington recalls. “They teach you that it’s a privilege to be there and you shouldn’t dare make a fuss.”

Many of the dancers also join for the fame and sign multiple contracts after their time with the NBA. They also form lifelong bonds with many of their colleagues. Ultimately, some see their time spent earning too little money as cheerleaders as an investment that could pay off in the future.

However, since Herington’s lawsuit in 2017, there have been several attempts to form a union to improve pay equity, according to two of the dancers PS spoke to anonymously. (None have been successful — yet). However, the former dancer, who maintains a relationship with current NBA dancers, believes there has been an improvement, at least in the area of ​​mental health. “They’ve made it so much more important to work on mental health and make the girls feel welcome when they’re stressed about food and working out,” Heringon says. “I think, OK, maybe we’ve made some changes in the industry and brought about some good things.”

Herington is still excited and extremely proud that she was able to pursue her dream and work in the NBA. Even though the pay was overwhelming and the conditions could have been better, the experience hasn’t completely scared her away from the industry as a whole.

“I know it sounds crazy, but now that I’m older and don’t have to make a living off of it anymore, I’m thinking about getting back into it,” says Herington. “I can dance as a hobby now that I have a real job and am financially secure. I’m not a young girl who has to finance this, I can support myself and dance for fun again.”

Having been out of the industry for over a decade now, it’s good to see that the pressures and experiences of the past don’t outweigh the love of dance and the feeling of making it to the top. Hopefully, as awareness increases, NBA dancers will continue to enjoy living out their dreams – only now with proper compensation.

Natasha Marsh is a freelance writer covering fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Prior to freelancing, she worked as a styling contributor at The Wall Street Journal, Burberry, Cosmopolitan Magazine, British GQ and Harper’s Bazaar.