Minor League baseball players will lose minimum wage rights under a new spending bill that is expected to be passed on Friday.
The continued underpayment of minor league baseball players is nearly law. On Page 1,967 of the new omnibus bill is an amendment that exempts minor league players from federal labor law. If Congress passes the bill by Friday, it's official. The language: https://t.co/oNXzB8iud4 pic.twitter.com/102mGFD3Mj
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 22, 2018
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While the average salary for Major League Baseball players last year was nearly $4.1 million, according to the MLBPA, the maximum first-year player salary in the minor leagues is $1,100 per month.
The provision in the $1.3 trillion "Save America’s Pastime Act,” on page 1,967 of the 2,232-page spending bill, proposes amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include the following:
"[A]ny employee employed to play baseball who is compensated pursuant to a contract that provides for a weekly salary for services performed during the league’s championship season (but not on spring training or the off season) at a rate that is not less than a weekly salary equal to the minimum wage under section 6(a) for a workweek of 40 hours, irrespective of the number of hours the employee devotes to baseball related activities."