Keith Law says MiLB teams should pay players

Just so you guys know 42% of Americans make less than $15 an hour. Its not just a small group, which given the comments I don't think some of you knew. Nevermind the cost of living is so different all across this Country. I could make three times more working in Boston, yet take my house and put it in Boston and it would cost three times as much. Nevermind it wouldn't even be in Boston, but greater Boston with a 45 minute commute everyday.

I bring that up because I just looked up a living wage in my area, its $11.42. I wouldn't be surprised to see it be $7 and $8 down South. $15 an hour might be the overall average for the Country, but that is being inflated by the big cities and basically everywhere in California. There is a reason they have living wage calculators for your town/city.

In theory I love the everyone should just make $15 dollars an hour talk. It sounds great untill you look at the massive effect it would have. It raises the wages for most US workers. Take a state with a $7.25 minimum wage, now everyone gets $15. Doubling the income overnite. It sounds wonderful. The way you guys look at it, the workers get more and Billionaires less. Yet that massive increase will have a huge effect on the cost of living. In the end you haven't changed much. Its why the places with the lowest minimum wages, also have the lowest cost of living. Its all connected.

You really want to live it up, do what a bunch of my plumber friends do. Travel 3 plus hours to Boston every week and then live in my area. You get the big city paycheck, but small town cost of living. Thing is its only works if you don't really like your wife.

Going back to Law's original argument (which I agree beyond the surface doesn't make sense), minor league baseball is "worth" a certain amount to fans, as shown by tickets plus radio, stadium experience etc. Every collectively bargained league has a model that includes calculating that worth and giving players a certain percentage. Minor leaguers are also part of the major league worth (as evidenced by the passion of this very website, where no one would care except there is a major league team to graduate to) but are ignored in those calculations and treated as ancillary. They are getting screwed out of knowing the worth of the minor leagues and then contributions to major league worth (though I agree bonuses compensate for some of the latter) and getting their cut of that.

ROFL!  He paid $300 million in income tax on the sale, but didn't make any money.  Hahahahaha!

Yeah, that's how income taxes work.

According to Law minor league Baseball generates 200 million in Revenue. Now add up bonus money in the draft, bonus money for international players, and salary. It has to be around 300 to 400 million a year if not more. That is the part Law leaves out, all the bonus money. He's just looking at salary, which makes zero sense.

Ah, so I guess the lawsuit was a complete waste of time, which is why mlb owners lobbied congress to not pay milb players minimum wage.  Why did they waste their money on lobbying congress?  Dumb billionaires with their money?  Or you're wrong.  The information is everywhere.  You have clearly taken a side since you will not believe anything that goes against what you want to believe.

I've read a bunch on this, the Federal lawsuit was the one using 40 and 60 hours as I broke it down. If they regulary work 70 like you claim, why wasn't that in the lawsuit? Please if there are tons of articles saying 70 hours during the season please post a couple. Should be rather easy, no?

The law passed that says they don't need to be paid for training camp and overtime, apllies if they make $1,1160 a month or more. The Goverment set that as meeting the minimum wage requirements. A few other things they get per diem of $25 per day, a $50,000 life insurance policy paid by the team and full health care 100% paid by the team. So they are getting good perks almost no other part time workers get. I want them to be paid for training camp, that only makes sense, but at there normal rate, not overtime.

Why did they lobby Congress? Simple so they didn't have to pay for spring training, overtime during spring training and have to worry about players going to state court trying to get state minimum wages rather than federal minimum wage. Congress told them $1,100 wasn't enough, you need to do $1,160. I don't agree about not paying for spring training, but this wasn't because they work 70 hour weeks all season long. Something I've yet to see after reading more than I should have on this topic.

Yes I clearly have a side, so do you. I'm willing to change my side if the facts are truly different than I think they are, but it seems like you are just making up extreme points to try and prove your point!

The fact that you see professional baseball as a game and not a “real job” really goes a long way towards explaining your fundamental lack of empathy here. I mean, imagine having so much disdain for professional baseball players that you earnestly believe that MLB is not interstate commerce?

The last thing I'll say is I think this concept of MLB paying it's minor leaguers more is a long shot. The minor leaguers are at the mercy of the owners.

The teams control fully in what minor leaguers make. In order for minor leaguers to make more they probably need to form a union, which will probably never happen. All prospects will never call themselves equal. The top 100 prospects probably do not even care what they get paid outside of their bonus money until they reach the union in MLB.

Most of these minor leaguers can not afford to hold out if they do form a union. If they ever did hold out, I would predict half of the prospects would still play because of their goal to reach the majors. Teams would then probably hire scabs to fill the rest of the teams out and go from there. No one cares about the on field product of MiLB, especially the fans. There's no motivation to pay these guys more. People go to games to see the top prospects of the system, not to see the quality of the product.

All the owners risk by not paying these minor leaguers more is bad publicity by very few who care. Until these minor leaguers reach the majors or reach minor league free agency (where they get some control), I don't think there's anything that can be done.

Yea its as fundamentally sound as saying all player deserve more because the owners can afford it. Its is a game!

If you look at this as the whole economy you need lower labor. It keeps the cost of living down. Thus allowing the people that make more to live a good life. Yea it sucks, but its reality. Our economy needs cheap labor. Its why $100,000 a year in my area puts you in the top 5%, yet makes you middle class in a big city. Look at John Henry, yea he doesn't use profits to cut ticket prices, but he invests into more businesses.  He invests in the stock market, etc. The ecomony needs large profits to grow.

I would fully support a minor league system of pay based on results. Maybe a bonus system of some sort that pays you more based on results. Heck change the bonus system to spread the money around more fairly. I just have a hard time saying they deserves more like Keith Law said because minor league baseball generates 200 million a year in net revenue, yet teams spend like 400 million a year in bonus money and salary, not even counting the free health care.

For everything else I disagree with, this is fundamentally bad and incorrect economic theory. The more money an individual (or corporation) has, the share of each additional dollar reinvested into the economy (whether through the purchase of goods, the hiring of additional labor, or direct investment) is actually smaller, slowing growth.