Onstage during her current “Reinvention Tour,” Madonna has to put all of her trust in the burly backup dancers who hurl her around the stage.

So why are they paid such puny bucks?

Friends of the dancers report they earn surprisingly little – mostly under $1,000 per concert – compared to the $2 million per show that their boss can rake in.

While they make more than the roughly $500 per show pop dancers usually get, the biggest names are expected to share the wealth and pay their dance team much more: The top ticket for “Re-Invention” is $300, meaning that at a big arena the show can gross $12million or more per night.

Madonna‘s 12 amazingly acrobatic athletes aren’t unionized, and almost all of them leapt at the opportunity to tour with the diva.

But after all the strenuous work they’ve done, sources tell us that some are grumbling that they deserve more money.

“I know they’re not getting paid that much, considering how much they’re working,” one friend told us.

Another spy snipes that the Material Mom doesn’t give the dancers any face time, pointing out that the “only time they see her is during sound check and during the show.”

The dancers trained 12 hours a day, six days a week for two months before the tour started. Now, as an effort to maintain Madonna’s singing voice, they are often forced to perform without air conditioning on stage.

“Sometimes it’s insanely hot,” one dancer told us, adding that even for experienced dancers, the work is strenuous. “It’s very hard to breathe, and they have oxygen in our dressing rooms.”

But star dancer Seth Stewart, who can be seen onstage tangoing with Madonna and wearing everything from military fatigues to a kilt, told us:

“She treats us like royalty. She even had us to her house for a cookout.”

“The dancers seem very happy,” said Madonna spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg, traveling with The Artist Currently Known as Esther and her troupe. “I haven’t heard otherwise.”

Source: New York Daily News