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Nasir and Matt get into a discussion about the Oakland Raiders cheerleaders labor dispute. They also answer the question, "I want to start a fantasy football league with my employees. Are there any legal issues with this?" Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: Welcome to the NFL episode of Legally Sound Smart Business and this is Nasir Pasha. MATT: And this is Matt Staub. NASIR: And welcome to the podcast where we cover business in the news and also answer some of your business legal questions that you, the listener, can send in to ask@legallysoundsmartbusiness.com. If it’s a question about your NFL football team, then just put in NFL in the subject line so we know that’s you. MATT: Are you going to be able to contribute this episode? I mean, you actually know a good amount about it. In your whole sports realm, NFL seems to be something you know about so I think we’ll be okay. NASIR: Yeah, I think so. I’m not really sure what NFL is though. What does it stand for? MATT: You know. I don’t know. I can’t come up with something funny on the fly. I’ll come up with something funny and we’ll edit it in and it will be funny down the road. NASIR: Yeah, exactly. MATT: Well, like you said, football episode, first one is this – a lawsuit dealing with a couple of the Oakland Raiders cheerleaders and they sued the NFL and that seems to be one of the important parts of this story. A little bit of background, I guess, in the past, prior to this year, the Raiders cheerleaders were paid $125 a game, that’s it. I don’t know how many hours that breaks down to. NASIR: Okay. Let’s say… how long is a game? Like, three hours? Including halftime? MATT: At least, yeah. NASIR: Maybe three and a half including halftime and maybe an hour before at least and then maybe a half hour after so that’s four or five hours? But not including travel time either. MATT: And not including practices. NASIR: So, they don’t get paid for practice? MATT: I mean, I could be wrong but I thought, the way this is worded, it seems like they just get paid the $125 a game. NASIR: Yeah, you’re right, and hadn’t received compensation for anything beyond that so that’s all they get is per game. MATT: If you look at the current minimum wage, $9.00 an hour breaks down to a little under 14 hours for the $125. That’s what they used to get paid. Now, they’re getting paid $9.00 an hour which is California’s minimum wage, and this is just the Raiders. But they sued the NFL for obviously minimum wage claims and the NFL’s response was this, and this is an interesting response saying that, you know, “We don’t have to do anything. We’re immune to these state labor laws and you should have sued the Raiders and not us, the NFL.” NASIR: I don’t know what we’re missing here because I think what the attorney or the argument they’re trying to make is saying that it’s not that they have to be in compliance with any state law but basically they’re saying that they’re under federal law because they’re a national organization and so forth. I understand the argument. I think it’s a silly argument because, when you have a national entity hiring employees throughout the different states, there’s a well-established law that the state where the employee works is the law that applies – very simply. MATT: And this is just so stupid because the NFL makes – let’s see – I think this year they’re estimated to make $9 billion in revenue. I think you can afford to pay the cheerleaders. I guess they are part of the individual teams. Either way, the teams make a ton of money too so it’s not like they’re not making out with anything. This just seems like pretty silly thing all around. Like, the NFL is not doing the right thing and the teams aren’t paying these cheerleaders enough. I don’t know who would even want to be a cheerleader if you’re getting paid this little for so much time. I guess you get a lot of presents. NASIR: Yeah, I don’t really understand that industry and it’s strange.