As federal legislators weigh a spending bill today, the financial fates of thousands of minor-leaguers hang in the balance. That’s because, as Maury Brown of Forbes and Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post are among those to report, the bill presently includes a carve-out of minor-league players from certain labor protections.
Rather cynically dubbed the “Save America’s Pastime Act,” the language would amend the New Deal-era Fair Labor Standards Act. Young sub-MLB ballplayers would be removed from the purview of minimum-wage and overtime protections. Instead, they’d be entitled only to be paid the minimum wage required for a forty-hour work week, during the season, “irrespective of the number of hours the employee devotes to baseball related activities.”
Evidently, the pending legislation provided an opening for this previously proposed but never-enacted exemption, which would be expected to largely forestall several pending lawsuits that challenge current labor practices with regard to players who are not on a 40-man roster. Even as the league has litigated those matters, the reports detail, it has boosted its spending on lobbying efforts in recent years in search of another way of dealing with the claims.
By Brown’s count, at any given time there are about 6,500 players working in the minors without 40-man spots. They are only paid while actually playing games in a MiLB industry that Brown says drew over 41 million in attendance last year. Thus, it is typical for players to take home only “between three thousand and seventy-five hundred dollars, total, during a roughly five-month championship season, with no overtime pay,” as Mary Pilon explained a few years back in The New Yorker. Some number of those players certainly receive a significant inducement to accept such an undesirable salary situation, though the vast majority achieve only minimal bonuses when they became professionals.
Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner says the law is about making sure players aren’t prevented from doing extra work to hone their skills and argues that “the formula of minimum wage and overtime is so incalculable.” As Jon Shepherd of Camden Depot explains, though, that’s not exactly an argument that decides the subject, not least because players could (as they surely do already) elect to train more or less based upon their own preferences, on their own time. His extensive post is well worth a full read for those interested in getting a sense of the overall costs involved, how they relate to team revenues, and whether there are some other potential solutions that would be both equitable and workable.
I seriously doubt that those who are pursuing their dream are oblivious to the fact that this is part of the process to achieve that dream. Most minimum age workers don’t receive room and board while playing (working) as basic as it may be.
Most minimum wage workers also don’t travel 50% of the time or receive signing bonuses.
And that’s why ‘picker’s cabins’ were never invented.
The issue is the model, beyond the low pay there are still ridiculous fees that teams charge players for. Many that people gloss over. In fact you mention room and board when in all reality that’s not really included past rookie ball. Host families might sponsor a player, but let’s not fool ourselves. When guys are cramming 5 guys in an apt to skim by for rent and util then there’s a problem. Without room and board in those initial stages it’s not really a viable model. It may be the dream, but it’s the lifeblood of a multi billion dollar industry. 6 months of min wage, at most, is not a huge ask. At 7M across 6 levels c’mon. But hey I mean imagine if teams just pocketed 50M. Wait they did.
I live near a AA team and can attest to players I’ve spoken to on that matter. The team makes an arrangement for an apartment about 20 minutes away, and between 3-4 guys are roommates for a few months until someone moves up or down. They’re paying for that. They don’t even get breakfast. Sometimes they get a meal at the stadium that’s usually catered but… not all the time and not always on the road. This new legislation infuriates me as a fan. No one expects minor leaguers to live like royalty but at the very least they should get fair pay for fair work. Overtime benefits? It’s disgraceful. They might be entertainers but minor league baseball rakes in huge profits on the backs of hard working dream-chasing players. They’re in over 40 states and 160 cities. They deserve enough to make playing worthwhile. One player I know works for UPS on the off-season just so he can afford to live.
Lol. I used to work with a minor league player at UPS
Minor league teams are not making big $$. What will end up happening is there will be fewer teams and fewer jobs with over regulation.
ups is a pretty good job, great benefits
The union needs to add that to the CBA if they are that worried, but guys in the show don’t care what the kid in double A is doing or how they are living.
It’s still a dream just as playing the lotto is with the odds only slightly better for the players. My point is the players know the situation as they pursue their dream. They have limited power at that stage. It’s a struggle no doubt.
Oblivious or not, it’s not acceptable what the norm is. Knowing the situation doesn’t make it any less terrible. You make a case for the present, but I would argue it’s a bad argument to never change
It’s a dream, but it’s also a job. Workers need rights and protections. Period.
Oh yes. By all means, let’s not pay people who dream! How dare they infringe upon the billionaires they work for to receive the same rights as a convenience store employee?
That’s somewhat of a bad argument. It’s the luck v skill argument. You can get lucky and win the lottery sure. It doesn’t really mean you’ve excelled at anything. You can’t luck your way from high school to college to milb- Rk, A-,A+,AA, & AAA. As for the power argument, they might not have much but doesn’t mean they shouldn’t fight. Personally I don’t think it’s asking to much to at least get paid a live able wage. Baseball keeps talking about wanting to get player interested in the game. Well we might want to start with milb pay, and then look at the structure of big time college baseball. It’s not even a headcount sport.
* young kids
these are professional athletes, not the same case
One of the original congressional sponsors of SAPA disowned it once she figured out what’s in it: washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/30/afte…
I’m sure you frequent posters who worship at the altar of ownership and deny collusion while also kinda celebrating it have ready defenses for exempting MiLBers from basic labor laws. Can’t wait to read them!
If members of the military aren’t even paid minimum wage, why should baseball players?
Just wow.
wow dood. broken logic
Work for a defense contractor, 5 times the money and none of the rules!
As a military veteran, let me start by saying you don’t know what you’re talking about. Active-duty military personnel stationed stateside get a base salary plus either free base quarters or a cash housing allowance adjusted for the local cost of living and a subsistence allowance – the allowances, by the way are not subject to federal taxes – and 30 days paid leave a year. Not to mention heavily subsidized health care, education benefits, and an IRA. But even excepting all those benefits I just mentioned, a brand-new E-1’s base salary is $19,000 a year, well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour using the federal standard of 2,087 hours in a work year. I won’t even get into the problems with comparing a public employer with a private, for-profit employer.
But even if your premise weren’t so demonstrably wrong, the fact that one group of workers is underpaid is not an excuse for underpaying another group of workers. You’re basically saying one wrong makes another right.
As a military veteran, let me start by saying your math is based on the premise of a 40-hr work week. Show me an E-1 who works less than 80-hrs a week (outside the Air Force or Coast Guard, of course).
There’s tons of actual downtime during official duty hours, even for the lowest-ranking individual, no matter what branch you’re talking about (though I always appreciate a good rip on the Air Force!). And on top of that there’s constant physical and classroom training wrapped up into those 80 hours you’re counting as work. The E-1 is paid for that. The Low-A player should be, too.
No hard feelings, brother. You had asked for the owner-apologist arguments – I simply offered the military as an example where minimum wage laws are carved out as non-applicable.
I’m not actually taking a stance on the fairness of minor league pay, just playing devil’s advocate as much as anything.
No offense but you must have never deployed. When I was in the Middle East I was working 12-14 hour days 6-7 days a week. In a combat zone mind you. Yes it was tax free but being away from home knowing a bomb could hit me o. The way to chow was scared stuff. The thing I will say and it’s the same for an MiLBer is THEY SIGNED UP for this. If people didn’t sign up they’d pay more. Most military members like myself have a love for this country that we’d almost do it for free just like
Most ball player love the game so much they’d do it for free. Nobody is holding a gun to their head like nobody held a gun to mine that day at the Oakland MEPS when I raised my right hand.
Everybody to the back of the line! Go ‘Murica!
Whataboutism at its finest.
Military is paid by rank & given benefits.
I am in favor of the NCOs below getting better pay also. But the military industrial complex favors corporations & political connected individuals. If minor league players got paid a lil more in salary this wouldn’t even be a issue.
Lol yeah that is what will happen. Ever get the feeling low level team employees are poking around here defending their bosses?
I’d like the shills who worship at the altar of the MLBPA explain again how MiLBers aren’t members so who cares.
People deny collusion because there’s no evidence that it is happening. People who believe there is collusion should present their case with facts, not innuendo, speculation and ad hominem attacks.
This MiLB pay stuff has absolutely nothing to do with collusion whether it exists or not. This has been standard practice in baseball forever and nobody’s really chirped about it until the last few years.
this is because the wage gap has become obscene. couple that with baseball’s record earning over the last few years and it is quite easy to see why it is a bigger issue now.
This is what we call a moral dilemma for us baseball fans
It shouldn’t be. There are very clear right and wrong sides of an argument on wage theft, which is what this is.
I know, minor leaguers should be paid more, but we all know nothing is gonna happen about it in the near future and once games start next week for real we are all gonna forget about this while the minor leaguers continue to get shafted. that’s the dilemma
That’s not what dilemma means.
That’s not a dilemma. That’s a personal problem.
I’m curious if they will use the national minimum wage or minimum wage for the states the player plays in
The federal minimum wage applies to federal employees. State minimum wage laws rule.
No, the federal minimum wage is a floor, not just for federal workers. States can set higher minimum wages if they want to, but can’t go below the federal minimum.
If state minimum rate, there goes every team in California. It’s off to Arizona, Nevada and Texas.
no it doesn’t. The state minimum wage is superseded b federal mandates, for example a state employee in California can be paid at the federal minimum wage and be exempt from municipal minimum wages (as well as no overtime) due to a federal cutout for state workers and their collective bargaining rights. If this bill states that it is the federal minimum wage then it becomes exempt from the state requirements.
>>Thus, it is typical for players to take home only “between three thousand and seventy-five hundred dollars, total, during a roughly five-month championship season
I think this should say three thousand dollars PER month, not total
No its actually for the whole season. That’s why its less than minimum wage.
Minimum wage for 40 hours per week is no where near $3,000 per month. And, these kids don’t get paid a cent during spring training. He majority of these kids will never sniff the majors, never got significant bonuses, and don’t have a useful education. They’re basically being exploited by MLB to provide the structure and training ground for the few who make it through to the wealth and fame of MLB careers.
If you can’t see how slimy that is, then think about it this way: when MLB is on the verge of having their treatment of these kids being declared illegal, instead of fixing it, they start lobbying/buying off congress to change the law so it won’t be illegal anymore. Wasn’t enough for these billionaires that their toddy congressmen just gave them hundreds of millions worth of tax giveaways (or that our cities, counties, and states have given them billions for their stadiums).
No that’s definitely not a typo.
Nope. Its actually 5-7k for the whole season. These are human beings getting effed by billionaires so they can chase down their dream. I love BB but this has me thinking boycott.
boycotting what though? the minor league franchises dont control what the guys get paid, right?
That is correct. Minor league players are paid by the major league teams who own their rights.
“These are human beings getting effed by billionaires so they can chase down their dream.”
You do realize who controls the house, senate and presidency, no. Whom would you expect them to help?
“Save America’s Pastime Act.”
It appears that Trumpkins are continuing the proud tradition started by junior Bush of putting a friendly sounding name on a bill that actually does the opposite of what it would appear to. “Help America Vote Again”, “Clear Skies Initiative”, “Leave No Child Behind” are past examples. Next Trumpkins will introduce a bill to revive the blubber industry, they’re calling it “Save The Whales.”
“I love B.B. but this has me thinking boycott.”
It’d be easy enough for me to boycott MiLB as I don’t currently watch much of it but this is a political question, not a sports question. Boycott the legislators who serve the wealthy owners who fund them. Replace them with legislators who work for the majority of their constituents instead. Much as I am obsessed by baseball, the problem here is much bigger than baseball.
Oh, and eliminate the anti-trust exemption whilst you’re at it. Like fifty years ago, please.
^^^Can’t like this enough^^^
Billionaires control both parties, and both parties are run by millionaires.
Let’s not pretend otherwise.
MLB players are considering dissolving the MLBPA which would give individual players the right to sue the owners to eliminate the anti-trust exemption.
They would then be able to establish a new union that includes all minor league players.
“MLB players are considering dissolving the MLBPA which would give individual players the right to sue the owners to eliminate the anti-trust exemption.”
It’s not quite that simple, oilf. The anti-trust exemption isn’t something a player or the players association can simply sue to eliminate. It isn’t a law or an agreement, it’s a ruling by the SCOTUS that (simplified version) MLB was exempt from anti-trust laws because it’s a pastime not commerce.
As nonsensical as that ruling was, it remains the law of the land until and unless the SCOTUS reverses itself or Congress passes a law removing it.
Someone would have to start a lawsuit vs. MLB knowing that they would lose at the trial level, lose at every appellate level below the SCOTUS, and that their only hope is that the high court will recognize the absurdity of its previous ruling and reverse itself. Doubt many lawyers will advise their clients to go that route.
Additionally, it’s not clear why an individual player would be better able to maintain a lawsuit vs. MLB than the PA. Certainly from a cost perspective it’d be much more economical for the players to do it as a group. That’s kinda what unions are for.
If someone wants to go the full route now there does not appear to be any legal impediments. Star high school pitcher Joe Blow wants to sign with his hometown team. MLB insists that he must pass through its amateur draft instead. There’s your anti-trust lawsuit. Doesn’t require decertifying the union, just the funds to keep up with MLB’s vigorous defense.
“They would then be able to establish a new union that includes all minor league players.”
But do MLB players really want to do that? The concerns of players in MLB and MiLB aren’t the same. Were they part of the same union there’d probably be a need for different classifications, just like there are different unions for workers and supervisors.
It would appear unlikely that MLB players will vote to decertify the PA. Too many people are making too much money and thus too invested in the current system—and that includes player agents.
Sounds like an mlb lawyer thought there was a chance some labor lawyer might try to sue them some day. The mlb would have to spend so much on lawyers to win the case that theyre better off paying a Washington lawyer to write an exemption and lobby congress to pass it before some labor lawyer can organize a class action suit.
This wouldn’t change someones opinion about whether the mlb should pay those players more.
There are already lawsuits pending.
it shouldnt take laws to fix this issue, it should only take baseball itself to improve the situation, but if the guys who have made it through the minors arent going to stand up for the guys there now and the future, nothing is going to happen.
The linked article (feom Camden Depot) was very interesting, but had one flaw- it was discussing what these minor leaguers were being paid as a percentage of what the major league club’s revenue was.
But, the real question is what revenues are the individual minor league clubs making. The article seems to accept as fact that significantly increasing the payments to this class of minor leaguers would lead to the major league teams eliminating some of their affiliates. Which would mean that the remaining teams would be largely filled with players who are on the 40 man roster, players who received significant bonuses, and players with more than 6 years of experience who are able to negotiate better terms. Meaning, the same players who are currently woefully underpaid would be the one’s who would lose their jobs entirely.
It’s the classic argument- is it better to allow ballplayers to be paid a substandard (as in, they can’t really subsist on it) salary to play baseball (which presumably they enjoy doing, or they wouldn’t do it) or to eliminate the jobs entirely.
I’d suggest an alternative would be that, for players who are not being paid a significant amount (whether that payment comes in the form of a bonus or monthly salary should be irrelevant), they become free agents at the end of each season and can sign with whomever they want. If there is a market for their skills, they should be able to negotiate adequate compensation. If, on the other hand, they are merely roster filler serving as a backup infielder for a single A club, then they have to decide for themselves whether or not they want to play professional baseball, or would rather pursue a different occupation.
That’s Trump and his party doing to the working man what he promised NOT to do. Pure evil.
There is something very wrong when a thing like this is added into such a monstrosity of a spending bill. It just goes to show the depths of the swamp. The vast majority of our politicians are owned by big Corps and are doing their bidding instead of taking care of the people. Whoever put this into the spending bill should be kicked out of politics.
The Ricketts family is a huge Republican donor, Todd Rickets is the RNC Finance Chair and after the family donated huge to see Trump win, Todd got named to Trump’s cabinet, same with Linda McMahon and others who donated huge to see Trump win.
Almost like their is a quid pro quo between these billionaires donating to politicians campaigns instead of it just being done as a respect for the politicians policy ideas.
It blows me a way that MLB teams don’t do more for their minor leaguers. These guys are investments. How expensive would it really be for a franchise to reconstruct their MiLB affiliates and cater to their player’s development- offer annual salaries, onsite training facilities, in house nutritionist, etc. Seems to be an obvious competitive advantage waiting to be exploited…
I agree with your thinking.
However, as you mentioned the MiLB teams are affiliates. Usually MiLB teams are independently owned and operated. Hence, it’s not up to the MLB team to dictate the salaries of the majority players on affiliated MiLB teams.
really quite simple to solve this. Have the union absorb minor league players and then negotiate a minimum wage in the next agreement. Win-win. The union gains power by controlling more players and the players gain security. The salary increase can come from MLB owners- perhaps a Minor league baseball day with ticket proceeds and tv revenue channelled into the salaries…
I love how the MLBPA couldn’t care less. Their “oh they’re not actually members so who cares” stance is a front for wanting as much money as possible concentrated in the contracts of a handful of elite players. No one with any clout is actually making a point of advocating for these minor leaguers.
Well said!!
True. They also routinely bargain away the rights of domestic and international amateur and pro players too. I wish a college kid who didn’t want to be subjected to the bonus pool that was negotiated by entities that didn’t represent him would sue. Ohtani should have too.
If MiLB players are not members of the players union, why were they subject to MLB draft rules?
Tossing some numbers around…
If there are 6,500 players to whom this applies at a given time, and they were to be guaranteed a $30,000/yr salary*, that comes out to a cost to MLB of $195,000,000/yr. Assuming the cost is born equally by each team, that’s about $6,500,000/yr/team. (This doesn’t factor in whatever they are currently spending, of course.)
It might squeeze some of the smaller payroll teams a little bit, but it hardly sounds unreasonable to me. In fact it may be a sound investment: If your players don’t have to worry about making ends meet both during and after the season, they can focus more on training and working on baseball-related skills.
* Number picked at random. It’s not a super high wage, but it’s a heck of a lot more than they’re making now and should strike a reasonable balance.
No time to fact check your math but also well said.
Some more numbers:
150 days (5 months) * 6 hours of work per day * $7.25 per hour = $6500.
It sounds like a good chunk of the players making $3-7.5k are already above minimum wage.
The Feds are involved.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Never let it be said that the Feds won’t do the worst they can do…
It costs each team an additional $5.5M per year to pay all minor league players minimum wage. Why???? should an ownership make that much more profit while its’ MILB players are earning less than minimum wage. I think it’s messed up and is a serious flaw in the sport.
Also think of how players can’t develop as well if they have to work a side job in the offseason to put food on the table when they could be training. So many players go from no name prospects to big leaguers, and some may quit since they don’t make enough money. Owners are billionaires, they should and they had better pay their players at least minimum wage and hopefully more.
Yes, Minor league ball players are grossly underpaid for the time and effort they put in, and many would make more money working at Walmart…so deal with it or go work at Walmart. No one is forcing them to play pro ball. For all the complains about poor pay I haven’t seen one major leaguer or group of major leaguers going into their own pockets to right the situation for minor league players. Perhaps in the next CBA the players could work WITH the owners to establish a pay system for minor leaugers…the players give some, the owners give some. But neither side will bend, with both expecting the other to deal with it.
On another note there is probably a somewhat positive outcome of minor league players being underpaid and having to struggle. How many retired baseball players go broke two years after retirement? Not many. Certainly not as many as football and basketball. And what’s the primary difference between the sports? In the NFL and NBA players get their money right away…they’re paid 1%’er salaries from the day the sign a pro contract. The money comes easy which means it’s not valued and goes just as easily. Most baseball players actually have to put in a number of years before making significant cash. They’re older, more mature (usually), and can appreciate the effort that it takes to earn that kind of cash—and what it’s like living without it even after entering pro ball.
From Craig Calcaterra:
“I’d simply suggest that you ask how much money minor league and major league organizations make via the playing and marketing of minor league baseball and how much Major League Baseball benefits by having its training and development system costs legislatively controlled.
Ask yourself whether the company that gave you your first entry-level position would’ve loved to have a law allowing it to pay you less than minimum wage and how you would’ve felt if that was the case in your situation.”
Technically, the law makes EXEMPT from legislatively controlled costs.
“Ask yourself whether the company that gave you your first entry-level position would’ve loved to have a law allowing it to pay you less than minimum wage and how you would’ve felt if that was the case in your situation.”
You mean like an “internship”, which does exactly that for a large number of people in a large number of jobs in a large number of industries?
Plenty of labor concerns out there beyond baseball.
actually there is a limit to the length of an internship before it has to become a paid position, the same goes for any for profit business that has volunteer workers – there was a huge crackdown in the livermore vally CA a while ago where that happened because retirees were volunteering at family/smaller wineries as a practice.
This is so tone-deaf I can’t even begin to parse all of your bad arguments. But here’s a serious one: the minor leagues are, ostensibly, designed to train the best players in the world to play well. Why does the system make it hard for them to just live and eat?
A terrific example of the powerful paying for legislative favors at the expense of those with less influence. Do I feel sorry for the player who got a $5M signing bonus….no. But the vast majority of Minor League players are not big-bucks bonus babies.
I don’t want anyone to be taken advantage of, but playing baseball is a choice. If you want to make a real wage, then get a real job. I know that likely sounds ignorant to a lot of people, but playing minor league ball is a chosen risk.
And if you want to run a business you should have to pay a minimum wage. Seems like the MLB team affiliates could chip in some extra salary to give their future players (and their non-prospects who fill out the lineups so the prospects can develop) better living conditions.
There is also a provision in the bill where the trades of players would be taxed ala as if you were trading a commodity like farm equipment. There is a lot of confusion on the part of mlb of how the value of minor league players traded for major leaguers would be taxed. or even what the value of the players to be taxed is.
Paying your employees a livable wage is also choice.
I guess it’s just one some folks aren’t willing to make.
So if the ml club is going to pay more for minor leaguers does that mean the mlb will increase from 40 man to like 50 or 60 man protection rule?
Just curious cause if theyre investing more money in their minor league talent id think the mlb teams would like to keep more of their prospects.
Assuming 160 minor league games a season, and 3 hours a game. That $7,000 wage comes out to $14.50/hour. Double the minimum wage.
Even if you add in 3 hours a day of “mandatory” practice, it comes out to $7.25/hr.
If you think it’s OK for MiLB players (or anyone) to earn $7.25/hr or less, you’ve been brainwashed by people richer than you.
Everyone who disagrees with me is brainwashed too
There’s no defending this, especially the slimy way it is being slipped into an important bill.
And the minor league wages are a huge reason I would tell anyone drafted after the 3rd or 4th round to go to college where you get room and board while developing secondary career options.
Make them salary and pay the federal salary minimum wage of $455 per week for the year
The treatment of minor league players is shameful in an industry awash in billions of revenue.
The owners are no different than the politicians who look to stiff the little guy for their own benefit.
I believe the major league players are no different. Not only do they not take a stand for their minor league brethren they have negotiated away rights for them in exchange for higher major league minimum wage provisions even though as it’s always pointed out, minor leaguers are not in their union.
Most of the minor leagues is made up of “org players’. These guys are used by the industry to help fill out the teams with high character guys who provide ample competition for the bonus babies. Org players are necessary but have almost no chance of getting to the show.
MLB is lying when they tell you they would eliminate the minors if it cost each team another $7-8M/yr. The bonus babies still need to develop and where exactly would they do that? Someone suggested a major league team would only keep the 40-man. That would not yield enough players to even field 1 minor league team after the major league roster. And do you somehow propose that the elite drafted high schooler would now be able to develop in this environment facing off against guys on the 40 on the cusp of making the show? Ridiculous. The various levels of the system are required for proper development and MLB has the money to pay for all of it.
MLB is acting like a ‘john’ and pimping out these young kids to the minor league teams. MLB sells these players services to minor league teams (report says MLB collects $20M/yr from their affiliated minor league teams) while paying for the players, coaches, etc. Minor league teams then make their money from there. Just like any other biz. Their cost is their portion of the $20M now go sell tickets, concessions, etc. And with that $20M coming back into MLB coffers how is it they can’t afford the extra $7-8M/yr to pay these employees fairly?
I wish Garrett Broshuis would help facilitate a merging of the minor league players into the hockey union where they have found a way to take care of their players. Without union representation the minor league players will continue to get shafted by the owners and the major league players.
It’s all a sham and listening to the MLB ownership pinheads trying to defend their position makes me ashamed to be an MLB fan.
Where is the MLBPA in this equation?
Labor is supposed to look after labor since management is going to look after management.
When labor ignores most of the laborers except for those at the very top, management isn’t going to do labor’s job out of the goodness of it’s heart. It’s just not. Just as labor isn’t going to hand back money when it wins the day. Not how it works.
The MLBPA could step up and offer membership to these players. It’s unclear why they don’t.
It would likely give these players the leverage they need to get a living wage.
Even if the owner’s didn’t hand over a dime more, the MLBPA could take 0.2% of the player’s wages and it would raise the money needed to pay the minor leaguers a living wage.
MLBPA represents players who have already made it to MLB. Any efforts to siphon money out of ownership’s pockets and to the minor leagues could result in reduced spending at the MLB level.
MLBPA has been perfectly happy leaving the minor league guys out to dry and have every economic incentive to continue doing so.
MLBPA doesn’t care about most MLB players so they’re certainly not going to care about MiLB players. Why do you think they don’t push reform of the 0.000-6.000 service time journey. $$$ spent on a pre arb guy are $$$ that won’t be in mega contracts somewhere.
The league and the union deserve each other.
Helping minor leaguers get paid more doesn’t help Bryce Harper get paid more. That’s where the MLBPA is in this equation.
You misspelled Scott Boras.
The MLBPA is legally restricted from lobbying on behalf of people that are not part of their union. They CAN’T fight for better pay for minor leaguers.
They also can’t offer membership to those players, since they are not major league players. They have a charter that spells out who they are representing. They would have to disband the union and reform as a new union in order to do that.
That would require renegotiating the CBA.
You yourself in a post above note that the union can and very well may dissolve the union as a tactic in the upcoming CBA negotiations as a means of getting the Jake Arrietta’s of the world more money.
And virtually every single union still in existence has a membership that far outstrips the original purpose of the union.
The MLBPA has had opportunity after opportunity to fight for these ballplayers and they have told them to hit the bricks instead.
Expecting management to benevolently care about labor that labor itself ignores might feel good, but makes no sense and solves nothing.
The MLBPA is the only entity with the leverage to fight for better wages for these players.
Some commenters don’t seem to understand what the legislation means.
This change would basically change them from being paid hourly during games only to being paid hourly for things like practice, training room, film room, and possibly even travel. They’d also probably get time and a half.
I seriously doubt minor league team owners are making a lot of money as it is. If you get 2,000 people to show up, and between concessions and tickets, people might spend $20. Let’s be generous and say the owner walks away with just more than 1/3 of that, so $7. That’s $14,000 x 12 games a month = $84,000.
Now let’s pay each player $8/hr. They make $320 for the first 40 hours of the week and another $480 for the second 40 hours at time and a half. That is $800, or $3200/mo. $3200 x 25 = $80,000.
Such a small profit would be difficult to maintain a team or livelihood for a business owner.
articles i found when doing a google search indicated major league teams pay the minor league salaries, not the minor league teams.
for your 4 full season teams, say that 100 players, if you increased everyones pay by 10k a year, thats 1 million bucks. i dont see any excuse not to do something as simple as that.
saw an article from a couple years ago where the Phillies were focusing more on nutrition for minor leaguers, and spending 1 million bucks for a season to feed minor leagues healthier meals, and for dieticians to advise players. New Phils manager Gabe Kapler started the trend while with the Dodgers
it only makes sense… if you are training athletes you want to perform for you, proper nutrition, fitness, and sleep are necessary. an owner wouldnt buy a racehorse and feed it junkfood.
The Phillies were one of the first teams to pay for 1 meal a day for their minor league players. Most minor leaguers live on a ramen and peanut butter diet.
Uhhh….minor leaguers get paid a flat rate. They don’t get paid O.T. as anything stands right now. I don’t see this change as making any difference whatsoever beyond a minor leaguer’s ability to sue for unfit wages.
Minor league owners don’t play player salaries. Thats MLB and the pay is less than 1% of revenue, half that for some of the bigger market teams
A more significant costs is bonuses that few players get.
Even the last player in the 40th round gets a $10k bonus.
Yes, because there are no other revenue streams available to an owner except tickets. Come on, man.
Perhaps it’s time the Players Union stopped whining so much about a slow “collusive” free agent market and put more of it’s focus on the next CBA on paying the minor leaguers better. The better prospects already have signing bonuses they can live off of, so make sure the rest of them have a minimum salary/wage/earnings that they can survive on.
The MLBPA can’t say anything about the minor league players treatment. They are not part of the union so it would be illegal for them to lobby on their behalf.
This bill will prevent minor league players from forming a union.
The MLBPA hasn’t, and won’t fight for better pay for minor leaguers, because they don’t represent the minor leaguers. It’s the major leaguers who pay their Union fees.
They’ve shown they legitimately don’t care, because they don’t have to care.
It isn’t that they don’t care, it is that they are legally restricted from lobbying on behalf of people that are not part of their union. They CAN’T fight for better pay for minor leaguers.
On the contrary, they have fought for lower bonuses for amateurs. Reason is MLB includes minor league pay and bonuses as part of their player costs calculations. They claim that 53-57% of revenue goes to players at all levels. MLBPA actively seems to lower the portion going to minor leaguers in the expectation owners will throw it back at MLBers. They dont of course as this season proved
The average team spends 1.1 million a year on minor league salaries to players not on the 40 man. About 40 million total. Minor league teams draw 41 million fans in attendance. Even at 5 dollars a ticket players getting less than 20% of the revenue. Thats not including TV (milb.tv) concessions, advertising, etc
Preface: I’m with most… MiLB need some pay
But Base Salary isn’t the whole story
MilB salaries start at around $1100/month during the season of rookie ball. not including any signing bonuses they may have gotten when they signed camp invites, and all that cool stuff. They generally also scale up. In the first year of AAA players get about 2100/month. There are also raises based on service time to a max of around $2700/month for their third year of AAA.
there are also bonuses for service time in specific leagues… like 500$ if you make it so long in AA.
After a player gets 6 years of service time (with out making it to the MLB) they can become a minors free agent in which case they can negotiate any salary they please.
and none of that includes the signing bonus they probably received (the last pick of the 40 round draft is slotted at 10k)
I think it was payscale did a survey a couple years back and found the average AAA player makes over $60k/year from baseball.
I think they deserve more especially those at the lower ranks, some of these guys work hard year round not just 5 months of the year prepping to move up the ladder and have little time to supplement with an other income, Really think the League and the MLBPA should work with MiLB to figure this out.. but really its not as bad as the sensationalists are making it.
60% of AAA players have spent some time in the majors. If they are on the 40 man roster they get bonuses. Otherwise, they max out at $2700 per month.
Minor league players do not get paid for spring training. 2 months with no pay at all except 1-2 meals per day. Spring training is often a work day that starts at 6-7am and ends at 10pm or later.
During the season the typical day in the minor leagues when playing at home is this.
You show up for morning workouts at 11-11:30 am. These are not mandatory, but if you are working to get to the majors, you are going to do whatever it takes and that means working out in the morning.
You are at the park by 1pm for a 7pm game. Most guys are at the park by 10:30 or 11am in the morning and do their workouts there if the team has the facilities. Many do not. You work out, do your drills, have your pregame meetings with your coaches, and then play in the game. With games at nearly 3 hours, the earliest you finish your job is 10 pm. That is an absolute minimum of a 10 hour work day. You work 25 days per month, 3 more days than most employees. So that is 250 hours per month, not including travel.
So if you are one of the players “lucky” enough to have been stuck in AAA for 3+ years, you are making less than $11 per hour for 5 months out of the year.
LOL as a former player i respect your view but you say this 10 hour work day like its some Chinese sweat shop (or whatever). I would be willing to bet a dollar that 6 out of 10 people who care about base ball would love to have the work day as a typical minor league player even at the cut rate pay. You guys lived our dream.
Heck i go to an independent league game and watch these (mostly) young guys play and think man they got it so great even though i know they’re probably eating cat food or left over hot dogs from the vendors lol.. i wonder if they’ll take on a 40 year old IT guy with bad knees and back who loves ramen noodles? lol (https://cdn.mlbtraderumors.com/s of course… well kinda….. hmmmm)
Note: not saying these guys have it easy, i know the travel would be killer for me… but come on.
anyway yeah, many who have MLB aspirations are working more than just those few months a year to get to the MLB, at the least it would be nice to get them paid for that time in some way. I guess clubs will say “that’s what the signing bonus is for”… ? You have some experience with that perhaps you can answer that part.
And again, not saying it isn’t an issue… but is it really all that bad? how may MiLB players quit because of the compensation? (i dont’ know but i’m guessing is fairly small percentage.) It does seem like there should be 25-50% rise in monthly with some compensation for the off season of some sort AT least for the lower ranks…. just to make sure their players don’t pick up a roofing job in the off season all fall off a ladder or something. maybe they can take 10-25% off the top of revenue sharing an put it directly to something like that. don’t know.. just tossing it out there.
Joking about eating cat food and then claiming “hey, these guys have it easy” are very different things. I know you obviously aren’t a former minor leaguer, and that is fine, but please don’t say that these players should just “be happy to be here.” These guys have spent their entire lives training to be baseball players. To put them in a worse financial situation than a fast-food worker is immoral.
Street performers also spend their entire lives learning to juggle, mime, or whatever. I feel no moral imperative to pay them more than a fast food worker.
Baseball players are entertainers, at the end of the day. They’re playing a child’s game for our amusement. I’d argue it’s immoral to suggest society should pay them MORE than a fast-food worker, who’s actually providing tangible goods and services for the betterment of society.
i had a really long wall of text that said i basically agree with pay in crease but the sensationalism needs to stop with more info but its in moderation queue
Fast food. Betterment of society? Lol
This is a sad day for baseball. Most minor leaguers don’t get big signing bonuses and they are living off ramen and peanut butter most of the year with 4 or more living in an apartment.
If it is signed into law, it will also kill most of the independent leagues.
It is truly sad that the GOP is bowing to the lobbyists instead of what is right.
How’s it kill independent leagues? It really just enshrines the status quo, while giving owners immunity from lawsuits over low wages…
Read the bill. Better yet, read JJ Cooper’s piece on it in Baseball America.
I’ve got a master’s in polisci and God help me I can’t read a bill. Then again, the politicians don’t either…
I’ll dig up Cooper’s piece though. Thanks for the reference.
make it easy for you 🙂
this is added to the Minimum Wage Exemptions
(19) any employee who has entered into a contract to play baseball at the minor league level.”;
and then excludes players from the exclusion above who have a MLB contract…
(2) by adding at the end the following:
“(k) Subsection (a)(19) shall not be construed to require the provisions of section 7 to apply to any employee who has entered into a contract to play baseball at the major league level.”.
it appears that now days most players drafted get some sort of signing bonus. (not all players are drafted though i suppose).
there was 240M+ available for the signing bonus draft pool in 2017 341 Players where drafted… I didn’t count how much was spent but the 153rd pick signed with a 300k bonus (check MLB site you can get a list of all them) one glove does not fit all i get that but some lower draft picks are getting some serious signing bonuses. I didn’t count them all but a quick scroll.. suggests most that signed got a fair bonus.
BTW: this isn’t amendment that really changes nothing other than to make it harder for the lawsuit(s) to go through.. once it makes it to the higher courts it shouldn’t really matter though.
sorry English isn’t working very well for me lately and i just missed the edit button to fix.
“Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner says the law is about making sure players aren’t prevented from doing extra work to hone their skills and argues that “the formula of minimum wage and overtime is so incalculable.””
Wow, what a giant f’ing liar. This law allows the teams to force the players to do as much extra work as the teams want because they don’t have to pay them any more money. In the current system, although the teams apparently aren’t paying OT, there’s at least the risk that they might have to.
10 billion in MLB earnings each year, but they need to keep wages down in the minors…..who-da-thunk-it
They get paid more to play in college than in MiLB.
The way that minor league players are paid is the grimmest aspect I can think of in the sport I love. How many kids without big signing bonuses or rich parents end up giving up too soon?
The greed and hypocrisy of the owners is breathtaking and the ignorance of the MLBPA is shameful.
The article linked above is a must read. One comment nailed it
“This is a great post. I want to hone in on one statement you made and connect it to the concerns about baseball’s inability to attract black players.
You write, “Based on unpublished research, the typical minor league baseball player comes from a white, upper middle class home and by the age of thirty has half the earning potential and assets as a similar person from the same background that did not go into baseball.”
Many of the white, upper middle-class players are able to pursue the dream because they are getting support from mom and dad. In other words, their family is sending them spending money, letting them drive their old car, helping them line up a decent job in the off-season, etc.
Players whose families don’t have money – which would mean lower-middle and working-class players of any racial background, disproportionately black players – are less likely to choose minor-league baseball or to stick with it. If they are American citizens, then they almost certainly have better options. You could make more money and better provide for your family even in relatively low-prestige jobs like restaurant service, for example.
Immigrant players are a bit different calculus. You maybe don’t have a better option as a poor kid from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela. So they’re more like to struggle through the minors.
But basically, if baseball genuinely wanted to attract a more diverse set of players, they would pay better in the minor leagues.”
Minor league pay has significantly declined when adjusted for inflation since 1976. Its about half what it was. Those supporting MLb owners baffle me.Another example of cognitive dissonance except for the astroturfers
This is an embarrassment. MiLB franchises print money. That’s why the clubs are mostly owned by investment groups now. And that’s not even counting long-term franchise value enhancement. If they were really worried about ensuring players wouldn’t be prevented from extra work to improve their skills, which is about as pathetic & disingenuous (not to mention cynical) an excuse as I’ve heard, the teams could simply pay enough that the minimum wage laws wouldn’t come into play. It wouldn’t be much, and there’s plenty of money. Instead, they spend enough money to cover the pay increases for a year (or more) on lobbyists to make sure players stay as impoverished as possible – literally more impoverished than the law would otherwise allow. A disgrace.
You telling me a billion dollar industry can’t give 10 million dollars to ensure their minor league players aren’t making less than 50k?