Minimum Pay for Baseball to Be $68,000
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NEW YORK — The minimum salary for baseball players will rise to $68,000 next season, a $5,500 increase from the current minimum.
The minimum baseball salary is pegged to the consumer price index and is adjusted every two years. The CPI, released this morning, showed an 8.9% increase from December, 1986, to November, 1988.
The average baseball salary was $438,729 last season, according to figures compiled by the Major League Baseball Players Assn. Eighty-four players on the roster or the disabled list on Aug. 31 made the minimum.
The minimum salary has increased 467% in the last 20 years, 224% in the last 10 and 70% in the last five. The minimum salary was $6,000 in 1967 and $19,000 in 1976, when free agency began.
It rose from $21,000 to $30,000 when a new collective bargaining agreement was signed in 1980, and from $40,000 to $60,000 when a new agreement was reached in 1985.
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