A bill introduced in the House of Representatives this week by Congresspersons Brett Guthrie and Cheri Bustos, boldly titled the “Save America’s Pastime Act,” actually appears to represent an effort to prevent Major League Baseball teams from complying with federal minimum-wage requirements for minor-league ballplayers.

Here’s a press release announcing MLB’s support of the proposed amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act:

Congressman Brett Guthrie and Congresswoman Cheri Bustos introduce the Save America's Pastime Act in House of Reps pic.twitter.com/AL8ohwqwuo — Josh Norris (@jnorris427) June 29, 2016

The release notes Bustos’ personal connection to baseball, but not this one: She received a $2,000 donation from the MLB’s PAC this election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org. Guthrie, like 45 other congresspersons, also received a campaign donation from the league.

And while the act is presented as an effort to keep minor-league clubs afloat, the language in the release is either misleading or utterly disingenuous: Major League teams pay the salaries of their minor-league players.

Garrett Broshuis, a lawyer and former minor-league player himself, represents a group of more than 2,300 current and former minor leaguers in a lawsuit against Major League Baseball and its teams. Initial minor-league contracts, Broshuis explains, pay players only $1,100 a month, do not include overtime pay, and do not compensate players for offseason work or spring training.

“The claims they’re making are completely alarmist,” Broshuis told USA TODAY Sports by phone. “There is no basis for making a claim, at all. There is no threat to America’s pastime in our efforts to increase the salary of minor league players to the minimum wage. We’re talking about the same laws that McDonald’s and Walmart have to comply with every day. This is just basic minimum-wage requirements here.

“Really what this is about is billionaire Major League owners working with millionaire minor league owners to ensure that the owners stay rich, and to ensure that minor-league players keep earning salaries that are below the poverty line…. This is about the baseball industry not wanting to live up to its obligations to comply with basic minimum-wage laws. It’s about the baseball industry, once again, trying to get a special exemption that no other industries have from the basic laws of this country. They have fought forever to maintain their anti-trust exemption, now they want to be special in another way.”

Minor leaguers are not represented by the powerful Major League Baseball Players Association, which has helped secure lucrative, guaranteed contracts for its members and established a system wherein baseball players dominate the list of highest-salaried pro athletes. Minor-league salaries, meanwhile, have increased only 75% since 1976 despite over 400% inflation in that span.

“You’re talking about a $9 billion industry — and growing — at the Major League level,” Broshuis said. “They can surely absorb a small increase in minor-league salaries. In fact, it should have happened long ago. They’ve ignored minor-league salaries for so long. A raise is long overdue for these minor-league guys.

“The numbers speak for themselves. Guys are frequently working 60 or 70 hours a week, and they’re doing so for very low wages. Guys are going to spring training every year, and they aren’t getting paid anything during spring training. Things like that need to be corrected. We’re hopeful this lawsuit will go a long way toward taking some corrective steps that should have been taken long ago.”

Not all minor leaguers make the $1,100 a month minimum — veteran minor-league players who sign on with new clubs as minor-league free agents often make significantly more, plus high draft picks and big-ticket international amateur signings typically receive large signing bonuses. But a Major League team could feasibly give raises of $20,000 to every one of its minor-league players for about the same price the Mets paid for free-agent outfielder Alejandro De Aza this offseason. De Aza is hitting .158.

Broshuis’ lawsuit is set for trial in February, 2017. And the lawyer said he hopes the case will inspire minor-league players to consider unionizing, an unlikely but not unprecedented step.

“I’ve always hoped that this lawsuit would sort of galvanize guys to take that step at some point,” he said. “The fact that 2,300 guys joined on to this thing, I think, is an encouraging sign. Hopefully guys can recognize that they can act collectively, and that it can be worthwhile to do so.

“Would it be difficult? Sure, it would be difficult. You’ve got younger guys that are chasing their dreams, and they’re reluctant to do anything to upset that status quo. There is an example that’s in place: Minor-league hockey players, for instance, have a union. And in fact, minor-league hockey players make more than twice as much as minor-league baseball players do.”

Update: