Silver promises salary increase in the WNBA, but the debate is the percentage

Salary Increase for WNBA Players in the New Collective Bargaining

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that WNBA players will receive a “significant raise” in the new collective bargaining agreement. Silver emphasized the importance of considering the “absolute numbers” to evaluate this growth, rather than focusing on the percentage of revenue.

I think the percentage is not the right way to look at it because there is much more revenue in the NBA. I think the absolute numbers should be considered in terms of what they are earning. They will receive a big increase in this collective bargaining cycle and they deserve it.

Adam Silver

The WNBPA opted not to renew the current collective bargaining agreement a year ago and has been negotiating a new one since then. The current agreement will expire in less than two weeks, on October 31.

The WNBPA shared in an Instagram story a clip of Silver’s comments, with the phrase “I think the percentage is not the right way to look at it” repeated in a loop and the caption: “Don’t they want to share?”, tagging Silver.

A crucial point in the negotiations, according to the players, has been the disparity in how both sides believe the players’ salaries should be determined, at a time of great growth for the league. The players are pushing for a system where the percentage of revenue allocated to salaries increases with business, similar to the NBA, where the salary cap is determined by Basketball Related Income (BRI), and the players receive approximately half of that amount, as established in their collective bargaining agreement. The league’s proposals, on the other hand, have presented a salary cap that increases at a fixed rate over time, as in the current agreement, where the cap increases by 3% annually. Satou Sabally of the Phoenix Mercury stated during the WNBA Finals that a recent proposal from the league makes the players feel that “we are not part of the league’s growth.”

If we were to continue with this agreement, we would decrease, in percentage, our compensation.

Satou Sabally

The league’s salary cap was $1,507,100 in 2025, with a maximum of $249,244 and a minimum of $66,079. The WNBA has experienced record growth in the last two years, with an increase in attendance, viewership, merchandise sales, investment, and franchise valuations, in addition to a new media deal worth $2.2 billion. When asked during the Finals about the disagreements between the players and the owners in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke about the importance of “balancing” the increase in player salaries with the “long-term viability of the league”.

That’s what we’re debating to determine where the right balance is. I think we all agree that we’re trying to return every dollar possible to the players, but we also want to incentivize the owners’ investment. We want the owners to have a viable business. Obviously, we are considering expansion to 18 teams for the end of the decade. So it’s important that the owners who enter have the opportunity to have a viable economic model for the future.

Cathy Engelbert

If the two parties do not reach an agreement before Halloween, they could agree on an extension that allows them to continue negotiating, as they did for the last agreement that was finally signed in January 2020. A new agreement must be reached before a two-team expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire takes place, and it must also precede a free agency period where most veteran league players are unrestricted free agents.