NBA Dancers are coming out with allegations against their coaches that include telling them to lose weight and paying them very low wages.
Lauren Herington, a former dancer for the Milwaukee Bucks from 2013 to 2014, recalls that the coach told her to "Lose 5 pounds by tomorrow, and you’ll be fine.” That was after a "jiggle test" was done in her spandex uniform whenever the coach felt that she looked questionable in terms of her weight.
Another Dancer, Ana Ogbueze, a Charlotte Hornets dancer between 2004-2008 feels different on the issue as she never felt like she needed to starve herself. However, she did mention that the mandatory food logging was a little questionable since she didn't want to let others know if she was eating badly or not. In that case, her coach explained to her that it was in place to ensure that the dancer was aware of what they were consuming as well as act as a tool for making improvements, should the need arise.
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According to Yahoo, many women stated that the body shaming issues really depend on who they get as a coach. With that in mind, some women were fortunate enough to be able to have loose weight restrictions.
On top of that, it was discovered that the dancers weren't being paid fairly. In 2015, Lauren came after the Bucks with a class-action lawsuit that claimed the team paid the girls $3-$4 an hour after having to pay for things like spray tans and manicures. However, the Milwaukee Bucks denied the allegations but did settle for $250,000 in lost wages to forty dancers. In terms of Lauren she apparently had to take up a second job waitressing at Ruby Tuesday to simply pay the bills while working with them.
Some girls mentioned that they got paid only $50 a game, others said they received $25 a practice, or in some cases, weren't even paid for a practice.
There was also a sentence in many contracts that stated the job was part-time but had a full-time commitment. This is probably the only area that the sports teams can defend it since it was a contract, the individual had to agree to the conditions regarding pay before they were taken in, but there are limits to the working conditions someone can be subject to.