WNBA salaries set to top $1M: How new CBA transforms player pay

When the WNBA was in its infancy, the league’s mere existence was remarkable. No salary cap was in place during the first seven seasons, and salaries were as low as $15,000.

Players have incrementally demanded more and more since the league’s inaugural season in 1997, culminating in Wednesday’s historic windfall. For the first time, professional women’s basketball players in the U.S. can make more than $1 million, and the average salary will be nearly $600,000 after the players’ union and the league agreed to a new CBA.

The spike in players’ salaries has never looked so sharp. Think of it this way: Incoming rookie Azzi Fudd’s minimum WNBA salary in 2026 will be more than eight-year veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell made on a super-maximum salary in 2025. The upcoming season’s maximum salary of $1.4 million, expected to be earned by stars like A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will individually be only $100,000 less than any WNBA team’s entire salary cap last season and more than any cap before 2023.

The WNBA first adopted a salary cap in 2003, when each team was given $622,000 to pay players. Even as the cap increased modestly, sometimes even failing to keep up with inflation, the business of the WNBA didn’t always support a reimagination of the salary structure.

That all changed in the last few years as the WNBA gained popularity and built its audience through a bubble season and the super-team era led by Wilson and Stewart. It reached a crescendo in 2024 with incoming college superstars. Suddenly, the idea that Cailtin Clark was making less than $80,000 to play in the WNBA became an absurdity and a point of national debate.

As a result, the WNPBA opted out of the existing collective bargaining agreement in October 2024 with a simple tagline: “It’s Business.” Players wanted the WNBA’s compensation model to more accurately reflect their value relative to the growth of the league. Salary and revenue-sharing were at the heart of negotiations for a new CBA.

“For the first time, player salaries are tied to a truly meaningful share of league revenue, driving exponential growth of the salary cap,” WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said

Here’s a look at some of the more revelatory points of each CBA through the years:

1999

The landmark four-year deal was the first collective bargaining agreement in women’s professional sports. Players’ salaries increased from a minimum of $15,000 to a rookie minimum of $25,000 and a veteran minimum of $30,000.

A 401K plan with mandatory employer contributions was also introduced, as well as year-round benefits, including maternity leave and a dental plan. A key element of the deal was securing WNBA jobs by limiting the number of players from the recently defunct American Basketball League.

2003

A salary cap was first introduced in this CBA at $622,000 with annual four-percent cost-of-living increases. The season had nearly been canceled during the tense labor dispute. The league conducted its delayed player draft hours after reaching a six-year deal, which included creating the WNBA’s first free-agent class. The minimum veteran salaries rose to $42,000, and the minimum rookie salaries stayed at $30,000.

After making compromises, the union expressed disappointment with the compensation and length of the contract.

2008

This deal was also signed less than a month before the season started, and it increased wages and the salary cap again. The initial gains were baby steps.

Players were willing to give up more substantial raises for a more flexible salary cap and more free agency rights. The deal guaranteed a three-percent salary cap increase, but teams that spent more on player salaries were allowed to raise the cap by an additional three percent the first year, by four percent in the next four years, and by five percent in Year 6, according to reports at the time. Team salary caps could be as high as $772,000 in Year 1 and as high as $913,000 in Year 6.

Maximum salaries rose from $93,000 the prior year to $95,000. Veteran minimum salaries rose only $1,000 to $50,000. Rookie minimum salaries inched up less than $2,000 to $34,500. The salary cap saw a boost from $722,0000 in 2007 to $750,000 with a “flex max” option of $913,000.

2014

This six-year deal added one player to rosters for a maximum of 12 per team. Stricter rules were applied to overseas players’ WNBA duties and rewarded players who limited their overseas play to less than three months. An improved revenue-sharing system based on ticket sales was also put in place.

2020

The 2020 CBA offered the most significant financial jump to this point in league history.

The agreement set out to triple the top players’ potential earnings to more than $500,000 through the inclusion of league marketing incentives and awards bonuses. Maximum salaries increased almost 83 percent to $215,000, and the minimum salary rose to $57,000.

Several aspects for improved lifestyle were added: Full salaries on maternity leave, nursing spaces at arenas, child-care stipends and reimbursement for costs related to various forms of becoming a parent, such as adoption, surrogacy and fertility treatments. Players also would be allowed to stay in their own rooms — instead of sharing with a teammate — on road trips.

Players were required to report at the start of training camp due to the prioritization rule. No charter flights were added, and players instead received economy-plus seating on commercial flights.

2026

The term sheet released by the WNBA lays out a dramatic financial transformation, resulting in skyrocketing raises.

• The salary cap will be $7 million in 2026, more than four times the 2025 salary cap of $1.5 million.

• The minimum salary will be around $300,000, and the average salary will be around $600,000 once revenue is factored in.

• The super-max salary will be $1.4 million.

• Over the life of the deal, players will receive 20 percent of gross league and team revenue. This is the first time that revenue has been tied to WNBA salaries.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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