By: Brad Austin
On July 15, Major League Baseball (“MLB”) agreed to pay $185 million to settle a federal class action suit initiated by former Minor League Baseball players who alleged overtime and minimum wage violations by their clubs. The settlement came over eight years after the complaint was filed in February 2014, when former minor leaguer Aaron Senne and others sought damages under the FLSA and state labor laws in Florida and Arizona, where all 30 major league teams operate spring training facilities.[1] This settlement serves as a milestone for minor leaguers in their fight to be properly compensated by their teams and Major League Baseball.
The complaint filed in Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball provides a background for MLB’s longstanding policies regarding compensating minor league players. MLB is characterized as a “cartel” with its origins tracing back to the nineteenth century, and according plaintiffs, its wage and labor practices “remain stuck there.”[2] Plaintiffs allege that MLB has been able to avoid properly compensating its employees by exploiting the “lifelong dream” of minor leaguers to reach the professional level.[3] Unionization attempts have been widely unsuccessful at the minor league level precisely because players are “reluctant to upset the status quo” and endanger their chances of achieving a goal they have worked tirelessly to accomplish.[4] In the words of minor leaguer Dan Peltier, who testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee regarding MLB’s antitrust status, “[W]hat minor league player is going to jeopardize his career by challenging the system?”[5]
This subjugation has kept minor league annual salaries at a paltry range of $4,800 to $14,700 for work weeks that regularly exceed 50 hours.[6] In addition to their time working during the season, minor leaguers are not compensated during spring training, which takes place over several weeks prior to the beginning of the season.[7] All the while, at roughly the same time the suit was filed, MLB’s annual revenue soared to $7 billion, and the average value of an MLB franchise reached $744 million, with some franchises eclipsing the $1 billion mark.[8] The reality for minor leaguers stands in stark contrast to the compensation of their major league counterparts, who, through their successful formation of a union in 1966 and ability to collectively bargain, have achieved a current minimum annual salary of $500,000 for their fellow players.[9]
The settlement in Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball is an inspiring moment for minor leaguers and their fight for proper compensation. Though the expected payout is roughly $5,000 per player, the $185 million settlement marks a significant change in how minor league players are viewed and treated by the MLB.[10] This agreement comes at a time when only recently in the past two years, MLB has taken steps to improve travel and food conditions for minor leaguers and provided them housing and health care, which were not provided previously. Additionally, as part of the settlement, MLB has issued a memo to all 30 major league clubs that they may no longer prohibit compensating minor league players for their work during spring training, as they had done in the past. Attorney for the plaintiffs, Garrett Broshuis, who himself is a former minor league player, remarked that although there is much work to be done, “change is in the air” and “things are getting better.”[11]
[1] Complaint at ¶16, Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, No. 3:14-cv-00608-JCS (N.D. Cal. filed Feb. 7, 2014) (available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.orrick.com/files/Senne-v-MLB.pdf).
[2] Id. at ¶1.
[3] Id. at ¶6.
[4] Id.
[5] Id. (quoting Major League Baseball Antitrust Reform, Hearing on S. 53 Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 105th Cong. 13–15 (June 17, 1997) (Testimony of Dan Peltier, Former Baseball Player).
[6] Jeff Passan, MLB to pay $185 million in settlement with minor league players over minimum-wage and overtime allegations, ESPN, (Jul. 15, 2022), https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34249632/mlb-pay-185-million-settlement-minor-league-players-minimum-wage-allegations.
[7] Complaint at ¶10, Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, No. 3:14-cv-00608-JCS (N.D. Cal. filed Feb. 7, 2014) (available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.orrick.com/files/Senne-v-MLB.pdf).
[8] Id. at ¶64-5.
[9] Id. at ¶4.
[10] David Waldstein, M.L.B to Pay $185 Million Settlement in Minor League Wage Dispute, N.Y. Times, (Jul. 15, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/sports/baseball/mlb-lawsuit-pay.html.
[11] Id.
