{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://deluzio.house.gov/media/press-releases/deluzio-introduces-fair-ball-act-strengthen-worker-protections-minor-league", "Deluzio Introduces \u2018Fair Ball Act\u2019 to Strengthen Worker Protections for Minor League Baseball Players", "2024-12-16", "2024", "2024-12", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Christopher R. Deluzio", "D000530", "deluzio.house.gov", "deluzio", "https://deluzio.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 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\u2019s (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\u2019s Pastime Act (SAPA). Congressman Deluzio\u2019s 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\u2014including those relating to overtime and minimum wage.\n\n\u201cWhether in steel mills, nursing homes, classrooms, or dugouts: I'm always going to fight for stronger protections for workers,\u201d said Congressman Deluzio. \u201cAfter 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\u2019m proud to introduce the House version of the Fair Ball Act to limit anti-worker exemptions and help strengthen labor protections for these ballplayers.\u201d\n\n\u201cWorkers deserve a fair playing field everywhere\u2014including 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\u2019s 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\u2019m 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,\u201d said Senator Durbin.\n\n\u201cPassed into law in 2018, the Save America\u2019s 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\u2019 work,\u201d said Jody Calemine, Director of Government Affairs at AFL-CIO.\n\nMajor 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.\n\nWithout this bill\u2019s passage and without a collective bargaining agreement in place, Minor League players would be vulnerable to SAPA\u2019s 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.\n\n\u201cFor generations, Minor League Players\u2019 working conditions were indefensible,\u201d said MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark. \u201cThis indignity was compounded by the perversely named \u2018Save America\u2019s Pastime Act\u2019 \u2014 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.\u201d\n\nFull text of the bill is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://deluzio.house.gov/media/press-releases/deluzio-introduces-fair-ball-act-strengthen-worker-protections-minor-league"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0036281310021877, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}