Minor-league players from the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets wore teal wristbands reading #FairBall during Saturday’s game to protest and bring awareness to minor-league pay.
Double-digit players from the Jersey Shore BlueClaws and Brooklyn Cyclones wore the wristbands, a collaborative and unprecedented effort that took place at the Cyclones’ Maimonides Park. It marks the latest step in an increasingly public effort to change conditions in the minor leagues.
“Minor League baseball players have been severely underpaid and silenced for decades," players from both teams said in a statement to The Athletic. "Today, we are wearing #FairBall wristbands to show our solidarity with every fan and ally who is working to change that. We love the game of baseball, but it needs to evolve. It is time for every Minor Leaguer to be paid a living wage.”
Minor-league players are paid twice a month and typically just five months a year. The standard is $500/week for players in High- and Low-A, $600 in Double-A and $700 in Triple-A. Those figures are before taxes and don’t include the cost of securing short-term housing in whatever city (or cities) that player is placed. Those figures, a raise from last year after Major League Baseball cut 40 teams this winter, still amount to $10,000-$15,000 annually. The federal poverty line currently is around $13,000.
Saturday’s wristbands also had "Advocates for Minor Leaguers" inscribed on one side. The group started last year and helps provide a collective voice for minor-league players, who are not part of Major League Baseball’s union.
“The players who donned wristbands in Brooklyn today will make less than $12,000 this year. The MLB teams they play for are worth well more than $2 billion,” Advocates for Minor Leaguers said in a statement to The Athletic. “There is absolutely no excuse for this. We are proud of these players for standing up for themselves and each other. Their message should be heard loud and clear across this industry: it is time to pay Minor Leaguers a living wage.”
MLB said in a statement: “We are seven months into a significant change that aims to address longstanding issues that have impacted Minor League players. Improving the working conditions and pay for Minor Leaguers is among the chief goals of the modernization of our player development system.
"Player salaries and working conditions are unequivocally better than they were under the previous structure. While more work remains, enormous strides have been taken by increasing salaries from 38-72% for 2021, improving facilities, providing more amenities and better clubhouse conditions, and reducing in-season travel with better geographical alignment.”
Last month, The Athletic spoke to more than 30 players from 20 different organizations, many who detailed sleeping in cars, on inflatable rafts or choosing between a bed and a meal.
The 2018 Save America’s Pastime Act ruled minor leaguers are exempt from the federal minimum wage and rules around overtime pay. Baseball also has an antitrust exemption, which makes it exempt from the Sherman Act that prevents businesses from conspiring with one another in an effort to collude or merge to form a monopoly. While the 1998 Curt Flood Act partially repealed that and gave the MLB Players Association the same rights as other pro sports unions, Congress specifically stated that the exemption was still intact regarding things like relocation and the minor leagues.
In the NBA’s G-League, players formed a union last year. The minimum salary is $35,000, and housing is covered. In the AHL, housing is not included, but players are part of a union and the minimum salary for the 2020-21 season was $51,000, roughly 70 percent more than the highest minor-league minimum.
(Photo courtesy of Advocates for Minor Leaguers)
