After weeks and weeks of negotiations, a breakthrough has come in the WNBA’s negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Late Tuesday evening, the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, just over 50 days before the league’s 30th season.
Advertisement
Although details are still emerging and the proposed CBA must still be ratified by the WNBPA and the WNBA Board of Governors, here are four major principles 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 cap of $1.5 million;
-
Average revenue share of nearly 20% over the entire duration of the CBA;
-
Supermax salaries starting at $1.4 million, and;
-
Average salaries in the range of $600,000 per year, with minimum salaries above $300,000
These numbers reflect the growing interest in the sport and represent a significant increase over the numbers for the 2025 WNBA season. Last year, the league the minimum wage was $66,079with the average player salary around $102,000.
Supermax contracts were set at $249,244 and the salary cap was set at $1,507,100, with the cap increasing at a flat rate of 3% each year under the deal. Additionally, the previous CBA included a separate revenue sharing provision granting direct payments to players if the WNBA met certain revenue targets, but these were largely suspended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Considering the current CBA’s supermax value, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell had the highest base salary last season, maxing out at $249,244 according to Spotrac. Las Vegas Aces goaltender Jackie Young was playing on the highest two-year deal, a $504,900 deal, averaging $252,450 per year.
Advertisement
WNBPA executives praised the agreement and the “collective voice” and “power” of the players’ union.
“I think it can be summed up in two words: player empowerment… players coming to the table and advocating for themselves and remembering the collective voice and what it means to be in a union and the power of that union,” said WNBPA Executive Director Terri Carmichael Jackson. “They never forgot it and they took it, as they always do, to the next level.”
