"Forget our housekeepers; take care of your cheerleaders," could well be the snarky memo from India's Foreign Office to the US Embassy and the State Department. In a season of bitter spats between the two countries over sub-par wages for workers, New Delhi may note with a degree of schadenfreude a major legal row brewing in the US over wages to cheerleaders, the quintessentially American sports dancing troupes, which have even made inroads into the Indian Premier (cricket) League.
A suit filed in California County Court this week on behalf of current and former cheerleaders of the Oakland Raiders has accused the NFL team of wage theft and other unfair employment practices, in a case that reveals how ill-paid the glamor girls are. According to an attorney representing them, the cheerleaders are contracted for an annual salary of $1,250, which amounts to an hourly wage of less than $5 per hour -- well below the mandatory minimum wage.
The suit also claimed that the football team "withholds all pay from the Raiderettes until after the season is completed, does not pay for all hours worked and forces the cheerleaders to pay many of their own business expenses," including making them foot their own bill for hair, makeup, travel, and photo expenses.
"It's as if the Raiders' owners believe that the laws that protect all workers in California just don't apply to them," the plaintiff's attorney Sharon Vinick was quoted as saying in the San Jose Mercury News. "I have never seen an employment contract with so many illegal provisions."
Wages for IPL cheerleaders, some of whom were contracted from the US, are not public, although there have been reports of salaries ranging from 8000 rand per month (about $ US 800) when South Africa hosted IPL for one season, to Rs 50,000 per month and Rs 5000 per match in India.
While there is no comparison between the current case and the one involving the diplomat and the housekeeper that led to a bitter row between New Delhi and Washington, the California dispute throws some light on the frequent infringement, sometimes with official cover, of minimum wage statutes across the US For instance, federal rules mandate a minimum wage of only $2.13 for the so-called "tipped workers" (such as restaurant waiters), if they receive at least $30 per month in tips. If wages and tips do not equal the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour during any pay period, the employer is required to increase cash wages to compensate.
The Indian government has argued that its diplomat Devyani Khobragade paid her housekeeper Sangeeta Richard well over the minimum wage for a 40-hour work-week, with plenty of benefits to boot, and that the New Delhi US Embassy's interpretation of sub-par wages was misguided and misplaced. The resulting row, which in turn threw up the issue of whether Khobragade could be prosecuted under US law and the larger question of whether she enjoyed diplomatic immunity, is now the subject of diplomatic negotiations between the two sides.
"There is an issue of what does the US expect abroad and what does the US give at home. I think there's a reconciliation there that needs to be done," India's new ambassador to the US S Jaishankar told Associated Press on Friday on the issue of diplomatic immunity, as the two sides continued to navigate the increasingly tricky terrain of parity and reciprocity.
In minimum wage spat, US cheerleaders say they are paid less than $5 an hour - Times Of India
A suit filed in California County Court this week on behalf of current and former cheerleaders of the Oakland Raiders has accused the NFL team of wage theft and other unfair employment practices, in a case that reveals how ill-paid the glamor girls are. According to an attorney representing them, the cheerleaders are contracted for an annual salary of $1,250, which amounts to an hourly wage of less than $5 per hour -- well below the mandatory minimum wage.
The suit also claimed that the football team "withholds all pay from the Raiderettes until after the season is completed, does not pay for all hours worked and forces the cheerleaders to pay many of their own business expenses," including making them foot their own bill for hair, makeup, travel, and photo expenses.
"It's as if the Raiders' owners believe that the laws that protect all workers in California just don't apply to them," the plaintiff's attorney Sharon Vinick was quoted as saying in the San Jose Mercury News. "I have never seen an employment contract with so many illegal provisions."
Wages for IPL cheerleaders, some of whom were contracted from the US, are not public, although there have been reports of salaries ranging from 8000 rand per month (about $ US 800) when South Africa hosted IPL for one season, to Rs 50,000 per month and Rs 5000 per match in India.
While there is no comparison between the current case and the one involving the diplomat and the housekeeper that led to a bitter row between New Delhi and Washington, the California dispute throws some light on the frequent infringement, sometimes with official cover, of minimum wage statutes across the US For instance, federal rules mandate a minimum wage of only $2.13 for the so-called "tipped workers" (such as restaurant waiters), if they receive at least $30 per month in tips. If wages and tips do not equal the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour during any pay period, the employer is required to increase cash wages to compensate.
The Indian government has argued that its diplomat Devyani Khobragade paid her housekeeper Sangeeta Richard well over the minimum wage for a 40-hour work-week, with plenty of benefits to boot, and that the New Delhi US Embassy's interpretation of sub-par wages was misguided and misplaced. The resulting row, which in turn threw up the issue of whether Khobragade could be prosecuted under US law and the larger question of whether she enjoyed diplomatic immunity, is now the subject of diplomatic negotiations between the two sides.
"There is an issue of what does the US expect abroad and what does the US give at home. I think there's a reconciliation there that needs to be done," India's new ambassador to the US S Jaishankar told Associated Press on Friday on the issue of diplomatic immunity, as the two sides continued to navigate the increasingly tricky terrain of parity and reciprocity.
In minimum wage spat, US cheerleaders say they are paid less than $5 an hour - Times Of India
