Deluzio Introduces ‘Fair Ball Act’ to Strengthen Worker Protections for Minor League Baseball Players
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) announced the introduction of the Fair Ball Act in the U.S. House to strengthen worker protections for minor league baseball players. A companion to Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) version in the U.S. Senate, this bill would roll back the current broad exemption of Minor League Baseball players from federal wage and hour laws provided by the misleadingly named Save America’s Pastime Act (SAPA). Congressman Deluzio’s proposal would replace that measure with a narrowly focused exemption that would kick in only if the players are being paid pursuant to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). If the players are not covered by one of these agreements, then they would have the same federal wage protections as all other workers—including those relating to overtime and minimum wage.
“Whether in steel mills, nursing homes, classrooms, or dugouts: I'm always going to fight for stronger protections for workers,” said Congressman Deluzio. “After MLB executives successfully lobbied to cut out Minor League Baseball players from minimum wage and federal overtime laws, we need to step in and stand up for these workers. I’m proud to introduce the House version of the Fair Ball Act to limit anti-worker exemptions and help strengthen labor protections for these ballplayers.”
“Workers deserve a fair playing field everywhere—including in baseball. Executives at MLB lobbied Congress hard for federal wage and hour law exemptions in order to avoid legal liability with the 2018 Save America’s Pastime Act. While I commend MLB for voluntarily recognizing the unionization of Minor League Baseball players in 2022, it is time to rollback SAPA in deference to the gains made by that historic unionization. I’m proud to stand with these workers, unions, and the integrity of the sport, and I thank Representative Deluzio for leading our efforts in the House on this bill. We stand ready to pass the Fair Ball Act into law,” said Senator Durbin.
“Passed into law in 2018, the Save America’s Pastime Act (SAPA) unjustly stripped minor league baseball players of their statutory protections to fair compensations. The Fair Ball Act will correct that injustice, and should be passed as soon as possible. The AFL-CIO thanks Senator Durbin and Congressman Deluzio for introducing this bill and urges that it be passed immediately, so that Congress properly protects the dignity of minor leaguers’ work,” said Jody Calemine, Director of Government Affairs at AFL-CIO.
Major League Baseball (MLB) lobbied for and passed SAPA in 2018 an attempt to insulate itself from a class-action lawsuit, which claimed that MLB and its teams violated federal and state wage and hour laws. They argued that the passage of SAPA would protect Minor League Baseball teams from shrinking. Yet, just two years later, MLB still decreased the size of dozens of Minor League Baseball teams.
Without this bill’s passage and without a collective bargaining agreement in place, Minor League players would be vulnerable to SAPA’s effects, which could result in players earning less than $8,000 per season (a little over five months long) or about 40 percent of the minimum yearly salary a player makes under the current CBA, without including additional benefits.
“For generations, Minor League Players’ working conditions were indefensible,” said MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark. “This indignity was compounded by the perversely named ‘Save America’s Pastime Act’ — a law that was enacted to save money, not baseball, by depriving Minor Leaguers of a minimum wage. By narrowing the Act so that it applies only when players are protected by a CBA, the Fair Ball Act is a win not just for Minor Leaguers, but for the institution of collective bargaining as a whole. The MLBPA strongly supports this bill from Senator Durbin and Congressman Deluzio, and we thank them for their work on behalf of Players.”
Full text of the bill is available here.
###