Aaron Senne, a former
minor league ballplayer, filed a wage-and-hour lawsuit in 2014.
His suit alleges that
some minor leaguers are not paid proper minimum wage or overtime,
with some earning as little as $1,100 per month during
the season despite spending more than 50 hours working each week. That’s
rookie league pay. (The math in the scenario works out to $5.50 per hour.)
The base
pay at AAA—a very skill high level— is $2,150 per month.
You might think the
Commissioner would argue as follows: (1) You guys love playing this game! (2)
We can find many others to take your place. (3) Some of you will make a lot of
money. (4) You have real jobs in the off-season.
The Commissioner has
not made those arguments. That's because none of those arguments are legally relevant.
Instead, the Commissioner has argued that the
employment contracts of players are so varied that individualized trials must
occur for each one (recently, there were 2,200 players who “opted-in” to the
lawsuit).
The substantive issue
is whether minor leaguers qualify under categories for “exempt” employees (as
in exempt from minimum wage and overtime). They likely do not meet the test for exemption, meaning they are
owed extra pay. They are not “artistic” employees nor “professional” employees,
as the Fair Labor Standards Act defines these exemptions to minimum wage laws.
For now, however, the
latest court ruling favors baseball (the magistrate ruled in favor of baseball's 2,200 trials argument!) though it has been appealed. Minor league
plaintiffs are behind in the count.
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