Saving America’s Pastime By Screwing American Workers
Minor league baseball is incredibly profitable—so why is the MLB trying to nickel and dime players?
Just a day after co-sponsoring a bill rather ambitiously titled the “the Save America’s Pastime Act,” Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) withdrew her support.
“…While it’s important to sustain minor league baseball teams that provide economic support to small communities across America,” she said in a statement “I cannot support legislation that does so at the expense of the players.”
The legislation in question—which almost immediately drew ire from the internet—seeks to exempt “Minor League players from certain federal wage and overtime requirements, putting them on equal footing with workers in a dozen other unique industries.” according to its other primary sponsor, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02).
Yes, the entire goal of the bill is to carve our an exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act specifically for minor league ballplayers, a population who are already notoriously grossly underpaid.
From Guthrie’s press release:
If the law is not clarified, the costs to support local teams would likely increase dramatically and usher in significant cuts across the league, threatening the primary pathway to the Majors and putting teams at risk. The impact on teams could also have a significant, negative economic impact on businesses and workers that rely on Minor League baseball. H.R. 5580 will prevent this uncertainty for communities, businesses and players, whose work environment includes extensive travel, practice, training, and conditioning above and beyond time actually worked on the field.
Minor league ball players aren’t new to this battle; they’ve been fighting for fair pay for years. And it’s not because minor league baseball is hard-up for cash—nor is it at risk of being shuttered any time soon. Over 200 of the minor league (MiLB) teams that Guthrie’s proposal seeks to “save” are directly affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams—and are funded by them, too.
“The entire premise of this legislation is completely flawed to begin with,” says attorney and former MiLB pitcher Garrett Broshuis, who, along with several other former players including lead plaintiff Aaron Senne and co-plaintiff Michael Liberto, brought a lawsuit against Major League Baseball. “A slight rise in minor league salaries to keep up with minimum wage won’t even come from the pockets of minor league owners…it’s not grounded in reality at all.”
Chris Smith breaks it down:
Of the 160 minor league teams with player development contracts with MLB teams, not one pays a single player, coach, manager or trainer. While the majority of MLB teams’ expenses go towards player costs, they are paid in full for minor league teams. The minor league squads don’t even pay the full cost for bats and balls; it’s split with the major league affiliate. It’s a sweet deal made even sweeter by the cities and counties that are willing to finance minor league stadiums in order to help stimulate their local economies.
Guthrie also makes no note of the fact that MiLB is extremely, extremely profitable for those at the top; the 20 most valuable MiLB teams were worth $28M, on average, in 2013. Since then, the value of most MiLB teams have increased rapidly.
“While it’s important to sustain minor league baseball teams that provide economic support to small communities across America, I cannot support legislation that does so at the expense of the players,” explained Bustos (who, interestingly, is the daughter of MLB’s first-ever lobbyist) in her withdrawal of support.
Players in the minor leagues typically scrape by on a stipend of about $1,100 per month for the spring and summer months that they get paid (during winter training, they’re expected to work without pay), and their wages haven’t even come close to keeping up with inflation. The lawsuit that Broshuis brought claims that salaries have “effectively declined.”
“According to the complaint,” wrote attorney Michael McCann for Sports Illustrated, “while big league salaries have risen by more than 2,000 percent since 1976, minor league salaries have increased by just 75 percent during that time. When taking into account inflation, minor leaguers actually earn less than they did in 1976.”
Meanwhile, demand in some areas for AAA baseball has reached a fever pitch; the Dayton Dragons, for example, went more than 1,100 games without playing to a single empty seat.
“In the last 10 to 15 years, what’s happened is there’s been a meteoric rise in minor league baseball,” says Broshuis. “More people are going to the minor league games, and they’re setting attendance records year after year. At the same time, they’re selling more merchandise. The franchise values are also skyrocketing,” he says.
That higher wages — or, to be more fair, that anything resembling a living wage — would destroy an industry is not exactly a new claim. Whether it was the coal industry citing their need for child labor or the garment industry’s rejection of equal wages for women, companies and business interests have been making claims like this for years. In fact, the MLB and MiLB’s claims for why this legislation is necessary are all extremely familiar, including claims that it’s not a real job, or that players do it for the love of the game, not the money.
MiLB’s wage battles are, then, a microcosm for a model of wage suppression nationwide. Players in the minors aren’t unionized, and thus, have zero collective bargaining rights. And because their skillset is so specialized, it’s not as though they can pick up their proverbial ball and find another job; instead, they’re at the mercy of what MiLB will pay. And that low pay is, much like in the case of other workers around the country, being billed as what’s best for them.
At the same time that the MLB is saving money on player salaries, they’re also enjoying the perks of a growing industry that’s more and more attractive to local governments. Cities are using taxpayer dollars to build new stadiums—and that, rather than higher wages, is what’s causing teams to pick up and leave town. The teams don’t go wherever the labor is cheapest — they go wherever someone will buy them a new ballpark. Just look at the weird history of AAA in Tucson.
Another common argument surrounding controversial decisions to raise the minimum wage (say, in states like California) is that it’s giving the government too much control over “the market.” However, MLB already has control of the market—and they’re using it to keep wages artificially low.
Major League Baseball has benefitted from legal exemptions for years, which also aid in their ability to pay below the minimum wage; their specific antitrust exemption—upheld in a 2015 SCOTUS decision—essentially means they create their own market for what’s a reasonable salary.
“You have the exact opposite of an open market,” Broshuis says.
It doesn’t hurt that they’re pretty big donors to political campaigns; the MLB Commissioner’s Office PAC made a donation of $1,000 to Guthrie and one of $2,000 to Bustos in 2016.
The players, meanwhile, have no such powerhouse behind them.
“There isn’t a bargaining entity that looks out for the minor league players and push back against the more powerful owners, who are experienced business people who have a lot of money,” says Broshuis. “It’s a recipe for exploitation.”
Since the lawsuit was filed in 2014, it’s been expanded significantly; the United States District Court ruled in 2015 that it could preliminarily proceed as a class-action suit. Broshuis says that since then, more than 2,300 current and former MiLB players have signed on. The suit is now currently in the discovery process, and Broshuis says they’ll find out next week whether or not it’ll continue as a class-action.
MLB has been circling the wagons since the lawsuit was initially brought, saying it would seek help from congress to defend itself. After Guthrie and Bustos filed the bill, the League sent around a press release citing owners and presidents, lavishing praise on the proposed legislation.
“Should the California litigation be successful,” wrote Louisville Bats president Gary Ulmer, “teams…may well disappear, along with a source of wholesome entertainment for Kentucky families, and an economic generator for those cities.”
A majority interest of the Louisville Bats was sold to Manhattan Capital Sports Acquisition LLC in 2014 for an undisclosed amount; the team is valued at $24M.
