New York — Today the Cincinnati Bengals became the 3rd team in the NFL to offer a proposed settlement to a wage theft lawsuit brought by their cheerleaders. Five teams total have been sued including the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, both of whom have settled.

The New York Jets and Buffalo Bills still have outstanding suits, and the Bills are even countersuing their cheerleaders, the Buffalo Jills.

“I want to congratulate the Cincinnati Ben-Gals who stood up for their rights against a patriarchal and abusive system, and won. With 3 out of 5 suits settled in the NFL, that just leaves the New York teams lagging behind. It’s especially embarrassing that in the birthplace of the women’s rights movement, our supposedly iconic institutions still think it is ok to deny women the same respect and protections as other workers. Do the right thing now!” said Assemblywoman Nily Rozic.

According to news reports the Bengals proposed settlement would cover $2,500 in back wages, minus taxes, for every season the cheerleaders worked from 2011 and 2013. In total, the team would pay out $255,000. The settlement would also include attorney fees.

Background

In September, together with lawmakers from 8 states, and California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and NY State Senator Diane Savino, Rozic co-authored an open letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell calling on him to set decent pay standards for cheerleaders as League policy.

Earlier in June, Rozic and Savino introduced legislation to codify into law that cheerleaders are employees, not independent contractors, and entitled to all the protections thereof. Their bill mirrors Gonzalez’s legislation, which was signed into law in July.