Ron DeSantis Signs Bill to Stop Florida Baseball Players Making Minimum Wage

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law that will allow minor league baseball players to be paid less than the state's minimum wage after the measure passed the legislature.

DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill known as SB 892 on Monday following the legislation's unanimous approval in the state's Republican-controlled senate, while all but one Democrat in the Florida House opposed the measure.

Florida's governor has officially entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and his approach to governing the state is likely to come under increased scrutiny as he campaigns for the White House.

SB 892's passage means that Florida remains in line with a federal exemption to the minimum wage that was approved by Congress when it renewed the the Fair Labor Standards Act in 2018.

At the time, Major League Baseball (MLB) was granted an exemption from the federal minimum wage when it came to playing minor league players.

The act was signed into law by then President Donald Trump, who is currently seen as the frontrunner for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination and has repeatedly criticized DeSantis.

The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour. However, in 2020 the state of Florida passed a constitutional amendment that raised the state's minimum wage to $10 and hour and raised the rate by $1 per year until 2026, when the state's minimum wage will reach $15 an hour.

This means that Florida's minimum wage is notably higher than the federal minimum wage and MLB owners may have been required to pay minor league players more than the federal minimum in Florida.

Florida's minimum wage is now $11 and will rise to $12 on September 30 but the legislation approved by DeSantis means the MLB will continue to be able to pay minor league players less than the federal minimum wage.

Republican Senator Jonathan Martin, who sponsored the bill, said that minor league players are provided with housing, transportation and breakfast.

"Nobody is starving, no one is barely able to make ends meet," Martin said. "And there is a tremendous opportunity that these players are given in exchange for their time ... to make generational wealth."

State Representative Ashley Gantt, a Democrat who opposed the legislation, said: "We need to ensure that no matter who you are, you have the ability to have a living wage and can actually buy groceries for what you're doing."

Investigative reporter Jason Garcia, who previously claimed that MLB was lobbying in support of the legislation, criticized the passage of the bill in tweets on Monday.

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a bill sought by billionaire owners of Major League Baseball teams that cuts minor league baseball players off from the minimum wage," Garcia wrote.

"One day after this legislation was filed in Tallahassee, Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade whose kids own the Chicago Cubs, gave DeSantis a $1 million donation," he added.

Rickets donated $1 million to DeSantis' gubernatorial account in February, according to a report from Politico.