Why Are Coaches Paid Under Minimum Wage?

by • Featured Stories

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thousands of full-time assistant coaches in college baseball work for much less than the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25.

Coaching is a calling to these men who love the game of baseball and enjoy helping players reach their full potential.

Many coaches are only paid a few thousand dollars despite working hundreds of hours a year as they live in poverty.

In a special Collegiate Baseball investigation, we wanted to know why these stewards of the game across the USA aren’t paid at least the minimum wage.

Collegiate Baseball contacted the U.S. Department Of Labor to find out what rights baseball coaches have when it comes to being paid the minimum wage instead of a paltry sum many are given.

If you ask enough college coaches on the NCAA Div. II, III, NAIA and junior college levels, they not only prepare practice plans, work at practices and recruit late into the evening many nights.

They are also heavily involved in weight training, study halls and driving vans or buses on road trips that can take them long distances away and then back home. They also coach numerous games.

When you add up how much they make with all of the hours involved, it comes out to less than $2 an hour in many cases.

Yet federal law demands that the minimum wage must not be less than $7.25 per hour.

Federal law stipulates employers who willfully violate the minimum wage law may be prosecuted criminally and fined up to $10,000.

A second conviction may result in imprisonment.

On Jan. 1, 2022, 21 states raised their minimum wages. It ranges from $9.20 per hour in Montana to $15 an hour in California.

The hourly wage in Los Angeles will rise from $15 to $16.04 on July 1.

If any state or city has a higher minimum wage for workers than the federal minimum wage, then that is what workers are entitled to receive.

If you go to any college in the country, the janitor or cafeteria worker makes much more money than thousands of assistant baseball coaches across the nation simply because they are required to be paid the minimum wage.

Too many assistant coaches continue to make pennies and are forced to apply for Food Stamps to survive.

While coaching is a calling, should coaches starve in the process?

To read more of this article, purchase the Feb. 25, 2022 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Read about what the U.S. Department of Labor had to say about the rights of coaches. It will really open your eyes.