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Sen. Pappas seeks FLSA exemption for minor-league players; MLB counsel backs statute to reflect CBA

Minnesota Senate Labor Committee · April 15, 2026

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Summary

Senate File 5004 would exempt minor-league baseball players from Minnesota's Fair Labor Standards Act when they are paid under a collectively bargained agreement; Major League Baseball counsel told the committee the parties negotiated a 2023 CBA that bundles wages and nonwage benefits and that an exemption avoids impractical hourly tracking.

Senate File 5004, introduced by Senator Pappas, would exempt minor-league baseball players from Minnesota's Fair Labor Standards Act when those players are compensated under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.

Senator Pappas said the bill responds to the unique work patterns of minor-league players — long hours of training, games, travel and injury management — and noted the 2023 unionization of minor-league players. Quest Meeks, senior vice president and head counsel for policy integrity and compliance at Major League Baseball, testified in support and said MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association agreed to a first-ever minor-league collective bargaining agreement on March 29, 2023. Meeks said the negotiated compensation package includes housing, club-provided meals, per diems, highly subsidized health-care benefits, retirement benefits, disability salary continuation and tuition assistance, and he cited season minimum salaries (he referenced a $1,225-per-week in-season minimum for a Triple-A level team as an example) as part of that framework.

Meeks told the committee an explicit state statutory exemption is needed because applying standard hourly tracking and hourly-wage rules to minor-league schedules would be impractical and could conflict with what players and clubs bargained for in the CBA. Committee members asked whether the players’ bargaining representatives supported the change; Meeks said the signatory bargaining representative negotiated on the players’ behalf and the parties agreed to the CBA.

The committee laid Senate File 5004 over for further consideration; no vote was taken.