Get the Facts: How do WNBA players salaries compare to other leagues?

During the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game, players protested by wearing shirts stating "Pay us what you owe us" as they entered the court. This action coincides with ongoing negotiations between the league and its players' association for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which sets player salary spending limits. Players opted out of the previous CBA last year, seeking higher wages that reflect the league's growth in TV viewership and ticket sales.

An analysis comparing CBAs across professional sports leagues found that the NFL, NHL, and NBA guarantee their players a fixed percentage (47-51%) of league revenue. In contrast, the WNBA and Major League Soccer (MLS) do not offer such a fixed percentage guarantee. Instead, both leagues provide players with a share of excess revenue: the WNBA offers 25% of revenue exceeding a set target, while MLS offers 25% of increased media revenue.

The analysis also revealed that leagues guaranteeing a fixed revenue percentage tend to have higher minimum salaries. Among the leagues studied, the WNBA and MLS were the only two without fixed revenue sharing. The WNBA's lowest guaranteed salary is $66,000, while MLS's lowest guaranteed salary (for reserve roster players) is $81,000. Furthermore, a separate analysis found that WNBA players' base salaries as a share of total league revenue decreased to 9.3% in 2022, down from 11.1% in 2019.

There is precedent for salary increases following CBA negotiations. When WNBA players opted out of their 2014-2021 agreement in 2018, the median salary increased by 21% the following year under the new CBA. The maximum salary also saw a significant rise, jumping nearly 83% from $117,500 in 2019 to $215,000 in 2020.