You might have heard about the federal lawsuit that three former minor league players filed against MLB a couple years ago, alleging that minor league pay scales violate minimum wage laws. That lawsuit is still going through the courts, but MLB has found allies in Congress. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) and Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) introduced a piece of legislation called "Save America's Pastime Act."
That sounds like something we'd all approve of, right? I mean, who doesn't want to save baseball? I bet you didn't realize baseball needed saving! Here's what the act would do: H.R. 5580 would clarify that minor league baseball players are exempt from federal wage laws. How does that affect MLB? If the lawsuit succeeds in increasing minor league wages, that's money out of the pockets of MLB owners. MLB teams -- not the minor league owners/operators -- pay the salaries of minor league players.
On her website, Bustos issued a news release that stated, in part: "Minor League teams are critically important, not just to the players and their parent teams, but to the communities they serve like Peoria and the Quad-Cities. This common sense proposal will close a loophole to ensure the long-term viability of Minor League teams in communities across our nation and I look forward to working with Congressman Guthrie to get it done."
The viability of minor league teams has nothing to do with player wages; the minor league teams don't pay the wages. Because MLB teams need minor league teams to produce their major leaguers, it's not like the minor leagues will be suddenly wiped out if players make a few hundred bucks extra per month. What's going on here? Why would a Democratic Congresswoman want to enforce these wages for minor leaguers? Bustos is the daughter of a guy named Gene Callahan, a former MLB lobbyist, and both Bustos and Guthrie are among those MLB's PAC donated to, according to FEC filings in February.
Connecting those dots, I say, shame on you, MLB. This is a $9 billion industry. Every MLB team could afford an extra $500,000 to help pay its minor leaguers, and the MLB Players Association could consider fighting a bit for its minor league brothers. As Steve Silver wrote in the link above: "So even though there are thousands of non-unionized minor leaguers living below the poverty line, Major League Baseball can simply phone a friend and ask its former lobbyist’s daughter for some help in Congress. Seems fair, right?"
