Lawmakers in a handful of states are crafting policies to protect a workforce that they say has been exploited by poverty wages, restrictive contracts and onerous federal labor laws: minor league baseball players.
Over the past few years, players and advocates have drawn increasing attention to the poor conditions in which many minor leaguers toil. Most players earn paltry seasonal paychecks for the five months they’re playing games, despite the rigorous year-round commitment in practice and workouts that their profession requires.
“It’s a few hundred dollars a week paid out only during the season,” said Harry Marino, who played four seasons in the minors as a pitcher and now serves as executive director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Guys struggle with housing, nutrition and making ends meet on a fundamental level. The system is outdated, exploitative and needs to change.”
The state policy efforts reflect growing recognition from lawmakers that minor leaguers are among a rare class of workers whose profession is specifically exempted from federal labor protections. While baseball players don’t endure the same conditions as farmworkers — another exempted group — players say there’s no justification for them not to earn a living wage, citing the dedication their job requires and the billions of dollars in revenues Major League Baseball brings in each year.
MLB officials say that players are seasonal trainees who should not expect minor league...
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