New Bill Could Effect EP Chihuahua’s Wallets
You might think that just because someone plays professional baseball, they make good money. Maybe not great money, but good money. Well, that's not actually the case.
In an article from 2014 in the USA Today, most minor league ball players earned between $3,000 and $7,500 for a five month season. There is now a bill that could make it so that minor league ball players lose their minimum wage rights.
According to an article in Bleacher Report, something called the "Save America's Pastime Act" was first introduced back in 2016, but never got enough momentum become a law. Now, on page 1,967 of a 2,232 page bill, it proposes an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Beware, lots of legal mumbo jumbo coming your way.
[A]ny employee employed to play baseball who is compensated pursuant to a contract that provides for a weekly salary for services performed during the league’s championship season (but not on spring training or the off season) at a rate that is not less than a weekly salary equal to the minimum wage under section 6(a) for a workweek of 40 hours, irrespective of the number of hours the employee devotes to baseball related activities.
What does that mean for minor league baseball players? It means teams could pay their players as little as $1,100 a month, which is around $275 a week. By comparison, the national minimum wage working who earns the limit of $7.25 an hour, earns $1,160 a month with a 40 hour work week.
This spending bill is scheduled to be voted on today and it needs to pass in order to prevent a federal government shut down.