DALLAS – The NFL franchise known as “America’s Team” is the latest to face legal action over alleged underpayment from an ex-cheerleader.
Erica Wilkins filed a lawsuit against the Dallas Cowboys in the Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas on June 12.
Wilkins, who was a member of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders from approximately May 27, 2014 to approximately August 9, 2017, explains in the 20-page suit that she “routinely worked (more than) 40 hours per workweek while performing her cheerleading job duties” for the team, but “was not paid time and one-half her regular rate of pay for each and every hour worked over 40 in each workweek during her employment.”
“Additionally, the number of hours the plaintiff worked in a seven-day workweek relative to wages paid to her for same resulted in workweeks in which the plaintiff was paid less than $7.25 per hour worked.”
According to court documents, the Cowboys’ mascot, which has been played by a male, was paid approximately $25 an hour. They show Wilkins’s total annual gross wages in three years was dwarfed by “Rowdy’s” reported annual salary.
The Cowboys’ neighbor down I-45, the Houston Texans, were recently sued by a group of former cheerleaders for similar allegations.
Wilkins herself seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
She is represented by Allen R. Vaught and Rebecca Currier of the law firm Baron & Budd, P.C. in Dallas.
Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas Case No. 3:18-CV-1511