Minor League Baseball

The Fight For Pay

The first fight for equal pay in baseball involved Major League Players, with the big breakthrough being Curt Flood being granted free agency. Minor League players still have to fight.

New minor league baseball cba

Infographic

The New CBA

The new Minor League Baseball CBA was ratified before the 2023 season. While it didn't break up MLB's antitrust exemption, it gives unprecedented concessions to minor leaguers.

All images souced with Creative Commons license

MORE INFO

more info

Click for Sources

1960

Former Major League Baseball Player Dick Allen revealed on Twitter that he made $362.50 in a month of Minor League Baseball back in 1960. If we assume a six month work month, Allen made 38.8% of the United States' median household income.

The Fight for pay

Infographic

1996

1996

Former Major League Baseball Player Kyle Farnsworth revealed on Twitter that he made $445.06 in a two of Minor League Baseball back in 1996. The median household in the U.S. would have made $1,478 over a two week span.

2019

Current Major League reliever Tyler Cyr revealed on Twitter that he made $8,216 over an entire season of Minor League Baseball in 2019. Over the six month season, the median U.S. household would have been expected to make $34,351.

2020

Major League Baseball cancelled tehe 2020 Minor League Baseball season in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Players did not get paid at all for this time unless they were in their team's major league camp.

The Fight for pay

Infographic

The MLBPA and MLB negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement on March 31, 2023. This new agreement more than doubled salaries at all Minor League baseball levels, per the union, with the actual numbers being reported by MLB's own media outlets.

The new agreement also improved players' per diems, housing agreements, retirement plans, health benefits, and rights to arbitration. Players unionized on September 9th, 2022, for the first time in the history of Minor League Baseball. The new agreement also guaranteed that MLB would not contract Minor League teams during the duration of the CBA

-

Before Pay

After Pay

https://twitter.com/DickAllen_15/status/1223307283473543168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1223307283473543168%7Ctwgr%5E3761e583e3f0228537b8fa9108be0e9e2b22af6d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2Fmlb%2F2020%2F1%2F31%2F21117245%2Fminor-league-pay-stagnant-dick-allen-paycheck-1960

https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1997/demo/p60-197.pdf

https://www.mlbplayers.com/post/minor-league-players-overwhelmingly-approve-historic-first-collective-bargaining-agreement

https://twitter.com/24_7Farnsworth/status/1207463292635144192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1207463292635144192%7Ctwgr%5E3761e583e3f0228537b8fa9108be0e9e2b22af6d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2Fmlb%2F2020%2F1%2F31%2F21117245%2Fminor-league-pay-stagnant-dick-allen-paycheck-1960

https://twitter.com/tycyr93/status/1181238079824154624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1181238079824154624%7Ctwgr%5E3761e583e3f0228537b8fa9108be0e9e2b22af6d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2Fmlb%2F2020%2F1%2F31%2F21117245%2Fminor-league-pay-stagnant-dick-allen-paycheck-1960