One of the major storylines in America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Season 2 was the team’s fight for fair pay. Led by squad veterans, the team pushed for higher compensation and was ultimately rewarded with a big raise that would start the following season. The current group is the first to reap the benefits, and DCC Reece Weaver shared a salary update during the Nov. 19 episode of Abby and Matt Howard’s Unplanned podcast.

What The DCC Salary Increase Actually Looks Like

The Dallas Cowboys organization didn’t share the specifics of the cheerleaders’ pay increase, but it was reported to be a 400% jump. In reality, Weaver said it’s “more like 300%.” She and her husband, Will Allman, explained that the pay structure has changed, so they won’t know exactly how much her earnings have gone up until the end of the season. Regardless, she said she and her teammates are “so grateful with the outcome.”

“I really don’t know all the behind-the-scenes on how it all works out, but what I can say is that it has been such an improvement and a very big increase [over] what we have seen in the past,” Weaver added.

The third-year veteran called their new pay “a significant increase” but admitted she wasn’t allowed to share all the details. “I honestly can’t speak too, too much about it,” she said. “I will say that and just preface. But I will say, games are now, like, the hourly pay is completely different. And so games are a huge improvement to what they were in the past.”

The Fight For Fair Pay

In America’s Sweethearts Season 2, viewers saw many DCCs come together to take a stand. Some had been working multiple jobs, and they wanted their DCC pay to better reflect their hard work and the value they bring to the Dallas Cowboys organization. On Unplanned, Weaver said she was initially unsure about joining the fight because she was so elated to be on the team. However, she ultimately saw an opportunity to have a big impact, especially with the success of America’s Sweethearts.

“We had so much support that it was like, ‘We can do this,’” she said. “I mean, so many new eyes, and we brought a whole different audience to our team and our program and to the Dallas Cowboys in general after the show came out, and I was like, ‘If there’s a time to do this, it’s now.’ And I think that was really encouraging and I really wanted to be a part of, like, history being made.”

Weaver added that she wanted to not just change her own trajectory but also support her teammates and past and future DCCs, plus inspire women in other fields. Discussing how much work the cheerleaders put in between their training, games, shows, and appearances, she said, “There’s really no off-season, so I think when we brought that to the drawing board, it was like, ‘Yeah, this, this needs to happen.’”

And looking ahead, Weaver doesn’t see their work as done. “I will say, this is just a stepping stone,” she said. “I think that there’s always more work to do, but I think this is such a great step in the right direction.”