As the WNBA’s popularity grows, player salaries continue to be a major challenge for the league

Breanna Stewart is about to begin her ninth season in the WNBA. As an All-Star and champion with the New York Liberty, she has seen her fellow players work hard to gain recognition. Over the years, there have only been small increases in player salaries, even though the WNBA has become much more popular.

Stewart has helped negotiate two collective bargaining agreements as part of the players union. A third negotiation is now underway, and it may be the most important one in her career. She hopes this new agreement will lead to much higher salaries for players.

“It’s been going up incrementally,” Stewart said. “But hopefully with the new TV deal that’s coming, it’ll really kind of boost itself into a category of its own.”

That was the goal when WNBA players chose to opt out of their current CBA two years early. The league is making more money than ever through sponsorships and ticket sales, and it will make even more from a new media rights deal, expected to bring in about $200 million a year starting in 2026.

As the league grows, progress is being made in a few ways: New teams are being added, creating more opportunities for players, and full-time charter flights became standard last season after years of requests from players.

Still, players want to see a bigger share of the league’s success. Right now, they receive only a small part of the league’s revenue.

The issue of pay has long been a source of disagreement between the NBA — which owns about 60% of the WNBA and is involved in negotiations — and the women players. Many see the current pay structure as unfair and have said they are ready to skip games if things don’t change.

“The talent is there, the product is there,” said Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings. “Now we need to be compensated for it.”

The current CBA, signed before the 2020 season, raised top salaries from $117,500 in 2019 to $215,000 in 2020.

But that was before a major rise in the league’s popularity and before stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese drew record crowds.

“The league has only soared since” 2020, said Risa Isard, a sports management professor at UConn. “And so this is the chance for the players to kind of recoup all of the value that they’ve produced in the last five years that they hadn’t gotten to see themselves so directly.”

What WNBA players are paid compared to NBA players

Paige Bueckers, the top pick in last month’s WNBA draft, signed a rookie contract worth just over $78,000 in base salary. Caitlin Clark received a similar amount last year. Both will earn more through bonuses and sponsorships.

They are both considered once-in-a-generation players who could greatly improve their teams. Still, their base salaries are far lower than players with similar reputations in other leagues.

The same is true for stars like Stewart and A’ja Wilson, a three-time MVP. Players at their level can make no more than about $240,000.

In contrast, the lowest-paid NBA players earn $1,157,153. Victor Wembanyama, the top pick in the 2023 NBA draft, made $12.2 million in the first year of his $55 million rookie deal.

Part of the reason for this gap is the difference in how much money the two leagues bring in. Last season, the NBA made about $11 billion. The WNBA does not share exact numbers, but Bloomberg estimated it brought in about $200 million in 2023.

WNBA player salaries are even lower than what the NBA paid its players when it was earning similar revenue decades ago. David Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University, said NBA players in the early 1970s — when the league was making about $30 million — were already earning about $300,000, which would be around $2 million today.

“They’re paying the women today so very, very little relative to what they were paying the men 50 years ago,” Berri said, “and the explanation of that to me, (is) you’re obviously just treating the women differently than the men.”

How much WNBA player salaries could increase

It’s not yet clear how much salaries could rise. Berri said that if players received 50% of the league’s $200 million revenue, the average salary would be at least $1 million, with top salaries between $3 million and $5 million.

But he said getting to that point won’t be easy.

“Is the NBA going to acknowledge how little they were paying them?” Berri said, “and suddenly just come out with an agreement and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to pay you $5 million now?’”

No WNBA player has made close to $1 million, but Stewart said reaching that milestone could be meaningful.

“There are players in this league that are valued at more than $1 million,” Stewart said. “That’s just the reality of what it is. But for everyone else, seeing that number and realizing that, OK — now by that point, the league will be probably 30 years into it — and look what we’ve done.”

Pros and cons of WNBA players sitting out games

No collective bargaining talks have ever led WNBA players to sit out games, and many hope that won’t happen this time.

Even though the WNBA is growing fast, it still brings in much less money than the NBA, which has been around for 80 years. That means WNBA players may not have as much power if they stop playing, Berri said.

“Because if you walk off the job and don’t show up, the owners, the NBA owners are like, you’re actually not costing me much money,” he said.

Berri pointed to the U.S. women’s soccer team as an example. Those players brought attention to pay inequality by speaking out through the media and on social platforms. Their efforts led to the U.S. House passing an equal pay law in 2022. Berri thinks WNBA players could use similar strategies.

If WNBA players choose to sit out, Isard said it wouldn’t be surprising based on their history of standing up for important causes.

“Often, they’re really selfless in what those causes are,” Isard said, “and they’re looking out for everyone and anyone else and the community, and what is happening in the Senate race, and what’s happening in reproductive justice and what’s happening in gun legislation — so many ways that they stand up for so many populations across this country.

“And I guess when I hear them say, ‘We would consider that,’ What I hear them say is, ‘Why wouldn’t we stand up for ourselves? We stand up for everyone. So us, too.’