Minor League Baseball’s poverty wages
I love Minor League baseball as you may know by now. To me it is the more honest version of baseball. Sure these players hope to break into the Bigs one day but they play for the game itself. This is what I kept telling myself for years. Now it appears that this isn’t all far off the truth.
I knew that minor league players didn’t get much money but I didn’t know that they get this little. Depending on the level they are playing at, they earn something close to starvation wages. They don’t even make the minimum wage. Most earn about $6,500 a year(!). A year, and that is only for the months they are playing in. They don’t get paid during Spring Training. And if they are required to to play instructional leagues like the Arizona Fall League, they don’t get paid either.
Some players get a signing bonus with six figures when they sign a contract with a big league club, but those are only the few very talented players. Most sign for a bonus of $5,000 or less.
Minor League players don’t get paid for extra hours. They get a $25 fee for their meals per day, but they have to pay $5 for clubhouse dues for every home game; that is 70 games times $5 (also depending on the level they are playing at). Some Minor League clubs are “sponsored” by local restaurants that offer the players a free meal a day but that is about the only advantage they have. Especially at the lower levels, players live together in an appartment to make it a bit affordable.
On the night that the World Series start, HBO is airing a registration of a lawsuit that was filed against MLB by 32 minor leaguers. These players want MLB to pay them at least the legal minimum wage. Who can disagree with them? Sure I can imagine that these players are paid for the season, but it should be a living wage, not a starvation wage.
Lawyer behind this lawsuit is Garrett Broshius, former San Francisco Giants farmhand during six seasons, so he knows what he is talking about. According to Broshius baseball has ignored this way too long. Since the introduction of free agency in the Majors, MLB salaries have risen 2,000 percent. MiLB salaries, on the other hand, have only risen 75 percent since 1976, while inflation has risen over 400 percent. So a simple calculation shows that minor league players have less to spend than they had in 1976. According to Broshius MLB owners take advantage of the situation that minor league players are in. These players are so desperate to reach the Major Leagues, that they are prepared to play for this little money to reach that goal.
The lawsuit will take place in the fall of 2016…. In the coming months, Broshius will try to make the minor league players think about the situation they are in. He hopes that this upcoming lawsuit will be a spark plug for the minor leaguers to form a union. But this will be a big step because many minor leaguers fear to risk their career when they join a union.
Compared to Minor League Baseball, other minor leagues are paying a more fair wage. Take the AHL (American Hockey League). This league is one level below the NHL and it pays a $45,000 minimum wage to the players, while the average salary is around $80,000. In the ECHL players earn about $1,700 a month, that comes close to what AAA players in baseball receive. But besides the $1,700, ECHL players get their housing and utilities covered.
So when hockey minor leagues can pay a fair wage, why can’t Minor League Baseball?
Two years ago, Jeremy Guthrie attended the European Big League Tour (organized by former Dutch big leaguer Rick van den Hurk). You could ask him questions. Of course my question to him was Minor League related. I asked him what he thought was the nicest minor league club he played for. Besides the answer that he gave to me, he claimed that minor league baseball sucked. Back then I didn’t quite understand what he meant, but after I have read several articles on the poor life that minor leaguers are living, I can understand what he meant to say.