Guppies of the minor leagues variety deserve a living wage, too.
Apparently, there is a class action suit under way regarding the travesty of substandard minor league players’ pay levels.
In an article, it was noted a few years ago that:
“According to the Associated Press, rookie and short-season level players’ minimum weekly pay will be raised from $290 to $400. Class A level player pay will jump from $290 to $500, while Double-A player minimum weekly pay will go from $350 to $600. Triple-A players stand to earn the most, going from a $502 minimum weekly pay to $700.”
Picture you are that minor leaguer and you are being (under) paid like that.
Simply....absurdly....low.
I don't know all the particulars, and maybe I should, but I hope the owners lose this legal challenge.
When I was a kid, we’d call those “coolie wages.”
Defined on-line as “coolie, (from Hindi Kuli, an aboriginal tribal name, or from Tamil kuli, “wages”), in usually pejorative European usage, an unskilled labourer or porter usually in or from the Far East hired for low or subsistence wages.”
That definition (low or subsistence wages) seems to fit.
Somehow, minor leaguers make the subsistence dollars work - or they quit, and take a better-paying job.
But to even double those weekly minor league pay amounts would still be far from excessive.
Owners might kvetch a tad, but methinks most could afford it easily.
If unwilling to do so, simply add a 25 cent or 50 cent minor league support surcharge to each ticket. As the new surcharge is announced, explain to the fans why owners are unwilling to pay what most of us would see as realistic salaries, and so they’re asking we the fans to help out.
Fans would most likely be appalled - but happy to do what they can. That would sure be embarrassing for big bucks owners.
If you asked me what the minimum full season AAA salary ought to be, I’d say $40,000, or even $50,000. Still less than a tenth of major league scale.
It is, after all, 2021. Fill up your gas tank lately? That alone costs about $20,000 per fill these days. Why so much? Well..."you know the thing". Anyway...
Owners need to do the right thing…set realistic and DECENT minor league player minimum salaries, pay those increased salaries, and (why not?) link those salary minimums to the same COLA index as the Social Security Administration uses, so this can just be fixed permanently, and automatically increase player pay each year.
Do that, and there would be the giving of thanks in every minor leaguer’s household. So.... Just do it. Baseball is hard enough, without being really underpaid while trying to carve out a career.
And while you're at it, pay guys in their first few major league years more, too. Imagine a guy who fights and fights, gets to the bigs, and his career only lasts half a season. After taxes, he probably takes home less than $200,000. Enough to pay off his credit cards from those underpaid minor league years and that's about it.
So... Come on, owners, do the right thing.
Pay more - it's tax deductible for you, anyway.
4 comments:
More likely is that the MLB owners will foist off the pay differential to the owners of the minor league franchises and tell them it's part of their cost of doing business.
This is worthy of Mr. Cohen reading this.
Forwarded it on to him
Reese, it shouldn't be. It could also be covered by a GoFundMe funded by baseball player multi-millionaires - If, for instance, Lindor kicked in $50,000 per year, it would be hardly more than 1/10 of 1% of his annual salary. If all the big bucks guys did 1/10 of 1%, it would add up to a lot of dough.
Cano? He can kick in 1% :)
Cano should kick in his whole salary and say "I'm sorry" but of course he won't. Also Tom "pejorative" right on my friend.
Post a Comment