Barstool employee salaries and contract negotiations explained

Barstool Sports is (almost) always making headlines for something – and they’re undoubtedly getting paid well to do just that.

Grace O’Malley announced her departure from the company in December 2024 after breaking up with a longtime friend Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia (more on that here) and has since spilled the tea what she did while working for the brand.

“I didn’t do anything when I was there. I had a paycheck and that was kind of it,” O’Malley said during a January 2025 appearance on the “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von” podcast. “I had the option to leave and I took it.”

O’Malley further claimed that former “PlanBri Uncut” podcast co-host LaPaglia was paid “a lot more” than she was.

“I’ve never earned (a podcast tour). Barstool took it,” she said. “It didn’t matter to me either. I was happy to be there. I was thrilled to just get the job.”

She’s not the only Barstool personality to detail her salaries over the years:

‘Business’ with boyfriend contract discourse

During a January 2025 episode of the series The surviving bar tablequestions arose about Will Compton and Taylor LewanBarstool Sports contract. Both men, who host the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast, were fired from the show.

“Right now, the ‘Bussin’ With the Boys’ crew is in negotiations for their next contract,” Compton said during his confessional. “You have to think, if you’re Dave and Dan, you can’t let the guys from ‘Bussin With the Boys’ run wild and win $250,000. Win a quarter of a million dollars and then potentially give us twos at the end of the year. So, hats off to me. Top of the cap. Dave, Big Cat, great players.”

Dan “Big Cat” Katz confirmed Compton’s theory in his own The surviving bar table confessional.

“Dave and I didn’t want Taylor or Will to win $250,000 in cash at Barstool Networks and then two seconds later be like, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to the contestant,’” he shared.

Compton previously spoke about his contract negotiations during the April 2024 episode “Next Up With Adam” podcast..

“Originally, (Barstool said) we’re going to go 50/50, you guys are going to get the IP. We said no, but we’ll go 60/40 and as soon as we win a million dollars, it goes 70/30 (in) our favor,” he recalled. “They went along with it, and then I said, ‘Y—, I think we were fucking playing ourselves.'”

Compton said their “other deal” with Barstool was a “competitive offer” and the podcast hosts couldn’t buy their show. “I personally wanted to quit Barstool. I think they’re the best brand for us at this point,” Compton said, noting that he and Lewan have had a “beneficial” partnership with the brand.

“We ended up settling on $3 million mg/year,” he said. “We have a bright side to it, every dollar earned after $3 million.”

Discovering Grace O’Malley

Following O’Malley’s podcast claims, her former boss (and Barstool founder) Dave Portnoy shared the numbers. He said ua TikTok video from January 2025 that O’Malley’s base salary was $175,000 a year and that she earned 70 percent of “anything” sold on their personal social media accounts.

“So in 2024, she got another $75,000,” Portnoy continued. “(Her interview) could have been cut, a little misconstrued, but it bothers me when people look like they’re not being paid fairly. I think we treated Grace, as I said from the beginning, brilliantly.”

Portnoy also addressed the pay gap with LaPaglia. “Bri was a much bigger personality,” he continued.

Portnoy explained that once Barstool pays back a person’s base salary, they “split every dollar half-and-half” going forward. “I just don’t like it when people look like we’re cheating our creators, because we’re not,” he added.

The big cat becomes a millionaire

Big Cat shared during the April 2024 episode from “The Barstool Rundown” that he became a millionaire around 2018 or 2019.

“Listen, everyone should try it,” he joked.

KFC promotion

Kevin Clancy (Stoolies aka KFC) was named Barstool Sports’ Chief Comedy Officer in July 2023. He broke the news on his podcast “KFC Radio”. at the time and said the career move came with a pay raise — but didn’t share specifics.

Clancy explained that he quit his corporate job and took a full-time job at Barstool after knowing he would be paid “just enough to live on,” which at the time was $50,000.

“I think I started at about 50, and then whenever I got to 100 grand, I thought, ‘Wow, I’m making six figures doing this,'” he said. Elsewhere in the episode, Clancy said his promotion doesn’t guarantee contract negotiations.

“I’m also the only person in the world who started a job with more responsibility without getting a new contract,” he joked.

Clancy probably makes a lot more now as one of the longest serving people in the company.

Lil Sasquatch does not make 6 figures

“The starting salary here is well below $100,000 a year,” Sas (real name Harry Settel) said during the June 2023 episode podcast “The Yak”.. “I’m still way below $100,000. … Just happy to be fucking here, man.”

The comedian then said that three years have passed since he started in the company.

Base salary discussions

Big cat and Gerard “Jersey Jerry” Gilfone discussed what the starting salary is for Barstool employees during the second of June 2023 episode “Strong”.

“I don’t actually know what the base salary is,” Big Cat stated.

Jerry said that when he was brought into the company, he started with $100,000. “However, I think it’s an average start. I mean – he added. “I think New York.”

During the same conversation, Brandon Walker threw out that his starting salary is $60,000.

“There’s less money behind the scenes and I think some people are entry-level if you don’t have a following,” fellow podcast host Adam “Rone” Ferrone explained. “I think if you have a following, you can leverage that into more than what Jerry was making.”

‘Chicks in Office’ discuss contract negotiations

When Ria Ciuffo and Fran Marianowho hosts the “Chicks in Office” podcast, appeared on “Trading Secrets” podcast. 2021 offered Inside Barstool a look at the company’s contract negotiations.

Mariano said their second deal with Barstool (in September 2018) was a big moment for the podcasters.

“It only took us one year to get a new contract that’s double the amount we started with,” she said. “The second time we heard the number, we were like, ‘Oh, this works.'”

Ciuffo said their contracts have always been “performance-based” looking at the success of the “Chicks in the Office” brand as a whole. She also noted that all the business their brand gets goes through Barstool’s sales department.

“I feel like we’re compensated through our salary,” Ciuffo said. “I feel stable in the way I get paid.”

‘Call her daddy’ of all things

It was 2020 and “Call Her Daddy” was run by two people — our now single father Alex Cooper and former co-host Sophia Franklin. Regular listeners of the podcast wondered if there was drama on the show when the women appeared to be speaking in code. Then the truth came out.

To spare you all the details all these years later, one of the issues was a dispute over Cooper and Franklin’s contract with Barstool before their friendship unraveled.

Cooper told listeners during the May 2020 episode of the podcast that she and Franklyn signed a “three-year contract” worth $75,000 the first year, $85,000 the second year and $100,000 the third year. They got a raise during their first year together, and then Cooper got an additional raise to handle the production side of the podcast. (She did not share this with Franklin.)

After the success of the podcast, women started asking for more money. However, Franklin’s boyfriend at the time (who eventually began shopping the podcast around to other networks) allegedly convinced the podcast hosts that they should ask for $1 million. Portnoy heard that the series was being sold around – leading to the infamous “rooftop meeting” between Barstool Sports founders Cooper and Franklin.

Their offer was $500,000 and ownership of the show. Cooper was involved and Franklyn wasn’t – which is why they split up. Cooper stayed at Barstool until June 2021 and then signed major deals with Spotify and SiriusXM.