And the American public thought CEO salaries were excessive! Over the last 2 decades, salaries for Major League baseball players have risen dramatically and continue to escalate at an ever-accelerating rate.
In 1989, the league minimum salary was $68,000. In 1999, league minimum stood at $200,000.
Now in 2009, the league minimum is $400,000.
In terms of average salary, the average for a Major League baseball player in 1989 was $497,000. In 1999, it more than tripled to $1.6 million. As the 2009 season starts, the average salary is now $3.15 million.
Now consider this. At the start of the 1989 season, 110 players received a salary of $1,000,000 or more with 17 players getting $2 million or more. Orel Hershiser owned the top salary in the major leagues that year at $2.76 million. Fast forward to 1999. During that season, 348 players received an annual salary of at least $1,000,000 with 4 players at $10 million or more. The top salary in baseball that year was Albert Belle’s at $11.9 million. At the start of the 2009 season, 434 MLB players will be paid at least $1,000,000 with 85 players set to collect over $10 million annually and 3 players set to get more than $20 million for the year. Alex Rodriguez owns the top salary in 2009 at $28 million.
Of course, the big paydays skew the statistics. However, league compensation for all players has more than doubled every 10 years for the last 20 years. At this rate, how much higher can salaries go?
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