After weeks and weeks of negotiations, a breakthrough has arrived in the WNBA negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement.
This is how much WNBA salaries increased in the new CBA
WNBA salaries are going up a lot in the new CBA.
Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
Late Tuesday night, the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) reached a verbal agreement on a new CBA, just over 50 days ahead of the league’s 30th season.
While details are still emerging, and the proposed CBA still requires ratification by both the WNBPA and the WNBA board of governors, here are four major tenets of the new CBA, according to ESPN basketball insider Shams Charania:
- A new salary cap starting at $7 million, a massive increase from the previous $1.5 million mark;
- Average revenue share of nearly 20% across the length of the CBA;
- Supermax salaries starting at $1.4 million, and;
- Average salaries in the range of $600K per year, with minimum salaries above $300K
These numbers reflect the growing interest in the sport, and represent a significant increase over the numbers during the 2025 WNBA season. Last year the league’s minimum salary was $66,079, with the average player salary around $102,ooo.
Supermax contracts were set at $249,244, and the salary cap was set at $1,507,100, with the cap increasing at a fixed rate of 3% each year under the deal. In addition, the previous CBA included a separate revenue-sharing provision granting direct payments to players if the WNBA hit certain revenue targets, but those were largely suspended in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given the supermax value under the current CBA, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell had the highest base salary last season, at the maximum of $249,244 according to Spotrac. Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young was playing on the highest two-year deal, a $504,900 contract that averages $252,450 per year.
WNBPA leadership hailed the agreement, and the “collective voice” and “power” of the players’ union.
“I think this can be summed up in two words: player empowerment ... players coming to the table and standing on business and being reminded of the collective voice and of what it means to be in a union and the power of this union,” WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said. “They never forgot it, and they have taken it, like they always do, to the next level.”
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