Set NLL salaries based on years of service?

A few years ago I pondered the idea of salaries in the National Lacrosse League and wondered if a sports league could standardize base salaries. I had put this thought into the overly large nether region of my mind until this blog post brought the thought out of hiding.

My work experience is far from extensive given that I've worked at one place since graduating from college, but I am with the understanding that pay scales are used by companies in compensating employees for their work. This pay scale could be formally set out and known to those in the company or perhaps there are unspoken limits that are known only by the top management or owners of smaller companies. Perhaps some companies do not refer to their practice as pay scales but I don't doubt there is an upper limit for each position within a company, big or small.

The big question is why can't a sports league use this principle in determining base salaries. The basic premise, which is pretty much all I have, is to set a standard base salary for rookies and each additional year in the league adds a predetermined amount for each year of service. These increases would be used to create set amounts for each year of service so year one is $20,000, year 2 is $22,000, etc. This would keep all players at each year of service at the same base salary and prevent timing differences in when a player joins the league.

Without leaving the beloved player's union out of the equation, they can still cause havoc...er, help players with respect to negotiating different pay scale increases for different lengths of service instead of a constant increase each year. For example maybe year 2-5 the increase will be $2,000/year, years 6-15 base salaries increase by $3,000/year and for over 15 years of service base salaries increase by $6,000/year. Of course those figures are only relevant if the league's revenues increase but the idea is the same. In addition, the PLPA would still be able to bargain for higher annual cost of living increases, better pensions and other such items that management wants to take away or not provide to their employees.

This amount being only the base salary. Whether this is already applicable in the NLL or not, any performance bonuses will continue to be in addition to base salaries (no need to get rid of player agents now is there?...). I am not too familiar with how bonuses work but perhaps there can be a requirement for a minimum performance level to retain certain bonuses for the length of the CBA, or individual contract. Perhaps bonuses can be left out of the NLL altogether...

As I said earlier, this is only a basic thought with some areas that need some significant thought yet, like how to deal with the salary cap, how to keep the bonuses respectable and have some bonuses that are a challenge to reach. As the league revenues grow the base salaries could increase as well. This might be able to keep the league affordable as it grows as well and that is a key benefit for me and I'm sure most followers of the NLL would like the league to remain affordable. I don't see why this concept could not be applied to a sports league but it is my idea and I am often blinded to the practicality of my thoughts when I think I have a good one.