This is what happens when there is a strong union to represent workers.
Major League Baseball's revenues in 2014 topped $9 billion. According to a Forbes article, accounting for inflation, that is an increase of 321 percent from its revenues of 1995, the year after the strike that shut down part of the 1994 season, a strike that many thought had seriously damaged the sport. With new television, cable-TV and Internet deals, Major League Baseball is a tremendously successful business.
So how are the workers doing - the players who have attracted all this revenue for the owners? A whole lot better than the workers for most other highly successful businesses.
Unlike salaries and wages in other jobs, which on average, taking inflation into account, have barely risen since 1980, baseball salaries have kept pace reasonably with the revenues of the owners.
The minimum major league baseball player wage in 1995 was $109,000 ($169,319 in 2014 dollars). Now it is a little above $500,000.
The national minimum wage for all workers in 1995 was $4.25 per hour ($6.60 in 2014 dollars), or $8,840 per year ($13,732 in 2014 dollars). Today it is $7.25, or $15,080.
The average baseball salary in 1995 was $1.07 million ($1.66 million in 2014 dollars). Today it is above $3.4 million.
The average household income in the U.S., in 1995, adjusting for inflation, was $50,978. In 2014 it was $51,017. It has not kept up with the growth of the economy. The Gross Domestic Product of the U.S., by comparison, was about $10 trillion in 1995 (in 2014 dollars) and was $17.4 trillion in 2014.
Major League Baseball has a strong union, and, obviously, that strike in 1994 did not hurt the players. But in the U.S. in general, union membership is less than half of what it was in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected President. Unions are particularly weak in the job areas of greatest growth - many of the high tech fields, retail, and food service.
Major League Baseball's revenues in 2014 topped $9 billion. According to a Forbes article, accounting for inflation, that is an increase of 321 percent from its revenues of 1995, the year after the strike that shut down part of the 1994 season, a strike that many thought had seriously damaged the sport. With new television, cable-TV and Internet deals, Major League Baseball is a tremendously successful business.
So how are the workers doing - the players who have attracted all this revenue for the owners? A whole lot better than the workers for most other highly successful businesses.
Unlike salaries and wages in other jobs, which on average, taking inflation into account, have barely risen since 1980, baseball salaries have kept pace reasonably with the revenues of the owners.
The minimum major league baseball player wage in 1995 was $109,000 ($169,319 in 2014 dollars). Now it is a little above $500,000.
The national minimum wage for all workers in 1995 was $4.25 per hour ($6.60 in 2014 dollars), or $8,840 per year ($13,732 in 2014 dollars). Today it is $7.25, or $15,080.
The average baseball salary in 1995 was $1.07 million ($1.66 million in 2014 dollars). Today it is above $3.4 million.
The average household income in the U.S., in 1995, adjusting for inflation, was $50,978. In 2014 it was $51,017. It has not kept up with the growth of the economy. The Gross Domestic Product of the U.S., by comparison, was about $10 trillion in 1995 (in 2014 dollars) and was $17.4 trillion in 2014.
Major League Baseball has a strong union, and, obviously, that strike in 1994 did not hurt the players. But in the U.S. in general, union membership is less than half of what it was in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected President. Unions are particularly weak in the job areas of greatest growth - many of the high tech fields, retail, and food service.
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