MLB to pay $185 million in settlement with minor league players over minimum-wage and overtime allegations

Major League Baseball will pay $185 million to settle the federal class-action lawsuit filed by minor league players who sought pay for minimum-wage and overtime violations by teams, pending a judge approving the settlement, according to a document filed in California court Friday.

The suit, filed in February 2014 by former Miami Marlins minor leaguer Aaron Senne and two other retired minor league players, was settled May 10, three weeks before it was set to go to trial. Thousands of other players will be eligible to receive part of the $120,197,300 due to players, with the rest going to attorney's fees and other costs.

As part of the settlement, MLB will issue a memo that allows teams to pay minor league players during spring training, and extended spring training and instructional leagues in Florida and Arizona. Teams previously had been blocked from doing so.

«This settlement is a monumental step for minor league players toward a fair and just compensation system,» Garrett Broshuis, the attorney who spearheaded the suit, said in a statement. «As a former minor league baseball player, I've seen first-hand the financial struggle players face while earning poverty-level wages — or no wages at all — in pursuit of their major league dream. For the better part of a decade, it has been my honor to help lead this fight and to shine a light on the unfair labor practices that have long plagued America's pastime.»

The first significant volley in an ongoing effort by minor league players to improve their standards of living, the suit alleged MLB teams violated federal and state minimum-wage and overtime laws. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the league's attempt to dismiss the class in October 2020, and the league avoided even