The Miami Marlins will pay nearly $300,000 in back pay and damages to 39 employees, including clubhouse and office staff, according to a report from FairWarning.org.
The Marlins are one of four Major League Baseball teams that have been investigated by the Labor Department over possible violations of U.S. wage standards. The Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, Oakland A’s, and San Francisco Giants are all named as being under scrutiny.
According to the report, 23 Marlins clubhouse workers were paid $50 a day for their worked, but worked as many as 11 hours on game days. Thus, the workers were getting paid less than the federal or Florida minimum wage and not getting paid proper overtime.
NBC6.com reached out to the Marlins for a comment about the report and are waiting for a response.
The Marlins, as a franchise, are worth an estimated $500 million, according to Forbes.com. However, the value dropped four percent from 2013 to 2014 after the Marlins posted another 100 loss season in the team’s second season at Marlins Park.
The San Francisco Giants agreed to a similar settlement that saw the team pay out $220,793 in back wages and damages to 78 former employees, most of whom were interns, the Star reported. The back wages ranged from $60 to $4,000 per employee, according to the Star.
The Giants were involved in a second wage case, according to FairWarning.org, that saw the team pay more than $544,715 in back wages and damages to 74 employees. The Giants also “were found to have improperly classified some workers as exempt from overtime pay.”
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The Giants franchise was valued by Forbes at $1 billion, fifth most in the Major Leagues.
