WNBA gamers are anticipated to make significantly extra money starting with the 2026 season when their new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal begins together with a renegotiated Collective Bargaining Settlement. Gamers can select to decide out of their present CBA by November of this yr, which might then terminate on the finish of the 2025 season.
The WNBA at present makes roughly $60 million per yr from their media rights offers, in order that quantity will improve to $200 million in 2026. The WNBA wage cap is $1,463,200 per workforce, which is merely $17.5 million of spending on participant salaries throughout the whole league. The league takes in solely about 40 p.c of its personal income after the NBA and outdoors buyers get their share, and fewer than 10 p.c of the entire income truly finds its approach into gamers’ salaries below the present CBA, which is a serious departure from the roughly 50-50 splits that unions within the NFL and NBA have negotiated.
The WNBA’s highest paid participant, Jackie Younger, at present makes $252,450 per season. The smallest wage outlined within the present CBA was the minimal contract in 2020, price $57,000 yearly. That class will improve to $66,079 within the assumed remaining yr of the CBA in 2025. If salaries triple or quadruple starting in 2026, some gamers might attain greater than $1 million per season and the minimal wage could possibly be near the present highest wage.
