You know, that new spending bill that nobody bothered to read, but they passed it anyway, and Trump signed it into law? Well, yesterday on the news, it was reported that one of the things that is in the spending bill is a measure to keep minor league baseball players on as "seasonal" workers and not afforded the protections of getting minimum wage. Current salary for a minor league player is only about 1,100/month, and when you figure out their hourly compensation, it is way under minimum wage.
MLB had lobbyists get congress critters to include the provision in the spending bill so that they could save money by screwing over the minor league players.
Here’s why these baseball players may suffer from the $1.3 trillion spending bill
Law allows minor-leagues to be paid less than minimum wage
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Minor-league baseball players can currently make as little as $1,100 a month.
Minor-league baseball players may come out losers in the $1.3 trillion spending bill that’s been signed into the law on Friday.
Buried inside the 2,232-page omnibus spending bill that passed the House on Thursday is a provision to continue to allow Major League Baseball to pay minor-league players less than a minimum wage.
The league has lobbied for such legislation for years. MLB — whose teams pay for minor-league salaries — says those players are seasonal workers rather than full-time employees, and thus are not covered by federal minimum-wage laws.
Under the language in the bill, minor-league players would be entitled to the federal minimum wage for a 40-hour week — regardless if they work more hours. According to a lawsuit filed in 2015, most minor-leaguers work 60 to 70 hours per week, including playing six games a week, practice, workouts and travel time.
While the average major-league player made a comfortable $4.4 million in 2016, the current monthly minimum salary for minor-leaguers is $1,100, the Washington Post reported. Under the bill, that would rise to $1,160. That would work out to an annual salary of $13,920, slightly above the federal poverty line for a single person, at $12,140. For an experienced player at the AAA level who’s on his parent team’s 40-man roster but without MLB experience, the top salary is around $40,000 a year, according to CBS Sports.
MLB had lobbyists get congress critters to include the provision in the spending bill so that they could save money by screwing over the minor league players.
Here’s why these baseball players may suffer from the $1.3 trillion spending bill
Law allows minor-leagues to be paid less than minimum wage
Minor-league baseball players can currently make as little as $1,100 a month.
Minor-league baseball players may come out losers in the $1.3 trillion spending bill that’s been signed into the law on Friday.
Buried inside the 2,232-page omnibus spending bill that passed the House on Thursday is a provision to continue to allow Major League Baseball to pay minor-league players less than a minimum wage.
The league has lobbied for such legislation for years. MLB — whose teams pay for minor-league salaries — says those players are seasonal workers rather than full-time employees, and thus are not covered by federal minimum-wage laws.
Under the language in the bill, minor-league players would be entitled to the federal minimum wage for a 40-hour week — regardless if they work more hours. According to a lawsuit filed in 2015, most minor-leaguers work 60 to 70 hours per week, including playing six games a week, practice, workouts and travel time.
While the average major-league player made a comfortable $4.4 million in 2016, the current monthly minimum salary for minor-leaguers is $1,100, the Washington Post reported. Under the bill, that would rise to $1,160. That would work out to an annual salary of $13,920, slightly above the federal poverty line for a single person, at $12,140. For an experienced player at the AAA level who’s on his parent team’s 40-man roster but without MLB experience, the top salary is around $40,000 a year, according to CBS Sports.
