Minor league baseball pay deal drags MLB working conditions into the 19th century
MLB and the minor leagues have reached a tentative agreement on a CBA, offering the majority of professional baseball players guaranteed pay for the first time ever.
For the first time ever, minor league baseball players have reached a tentative Collective Bargaining Agreement with the owners, offering them a salary that sees them come within touching distance of minimum wage.
Only a century and a half after slavery was outlawed and Victorian sweat shops were undone with protections for workers, the MLB owners have been shamed and cajoled into giving basic rights to minor league baseball players.
The new deal is a five-year agreement that will see rookie salaries rise from a paltry $4,800 to a still-laughable $19,800. Low Class A salaries will swell from $11,000 to $26,200 while High Class A will go from $13,800 to $27,300. Triple-A players will go from $17,500 to $35,800 in the only level of player to make a similar amount as a newly-hired McDonalds employee.
NEWS: Major League Baseball and the MLBPA's minor leaguers have agreed to the first-ever CBA for minor league players, per @JeffPassan.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 30, 2023
It will double minor league player pay at every level. pic.twitter.com/h1Ge6iF2Af
Accustomed to taking causal work in the off-season to make ends meet, such as cutting lawns or washing cars, it has long been a scandal of epic proportions that minor league players were only paid during the season and not year-round. If it seems insane and immoral that they are contracted on an annual basis but only paid for part of that, then that is because it is.
Players were offered the chance to ratify this agreement and the MLBPA reported that it passed with over 99% approval of the roughly 5,500 voting members.
As part of the deal, minor league players will receive four weeks of retroactive spring training pay for this season, which is set at $625 per week for spring training and offseason training camps and $250 a week for offseason workouts at home.
Additionally, for the first time ever, most players will be guaranteed housing, with AA and AAA players given a single room. You know, like adults.
MLB's CBA Proposal Included Ability To Reduce Number Of Available Minor League Roster Spots https://t.co/Pa2khPh1Kf pic.twitter.com/fljbHNjSTI
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) February 15, 2022
Players at Low A and High A will be given the option of exchanging club housing for a cash stipend. The threshold for free agency was lowered to six years from seven for any player who sign for the first time at age 19 or older.
With an agreement by MLB not to reduce the number of affiliate clubs any further, minor league ball players will have the right to a second medical opinion in case of injury, a 401(k) plan, and disciplinary arbitration.
All of this comes on the back of a threat of a US Senate hearing into the working conditions of minor league ball players last summer. Suddenly, MLB, who had been firmly against any unionization in minor league baseball, was amenable to the idea.