WNBA Proposal: Million-Dollar Salaries on the Horizon
The WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) is evaluating a new proposal from the league that promises a significant increase in salaries starting in 2026.
According to sources, the proposal includes a guaranteed maximum salary of $1 million in 2026. In addition, revenue sharing is expected to raise the total earnings of the highest-paid players to over $1.2 million.
The proposal also provides for a considerable increase in average and minimum salaries. It is projected that the average salary of the players will exceed $500,000 in 2026, while the minimum salary could exceed $225,000.
The salary cap would also experience an increase, reaching $5 million in 2026. This cap would be directly linked to the growth of the league’s revenue in each year of the agreement.
Despite these promising figures, an agreement is not yet imminent. Both parties agreed to extend the current collective agreement until January 9, 2026.
This extension, proposed by the players’ union, will allow both parties to continue negotiations with the aim of reaching an agreement beneficial to both parties.
The new numbers represent an increase over the league’s previous proposal, which included a total compensation of more than $1.1 million for maximum-salary players, an average salary of more than $460,000, and a minimum salary of more than $220,000.
In 2025, the league’s minimum salary was $66,079, the supermax was $249,244, and the salary cap was $1,507,100, increasing at a fixed rate of 3% each year according to the agreement.
The current agreement also includes a separate revenue-sharing provision that grants direct payments to players if the league reaches certain revenue targets, although this has not yet happened, largely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The WNBPA and players have been pushing for a system where the salary cap, and therefore player salaries, is more directly linked to the growth of the business, as in the NBA, where the salary cap is determined directly by basketball-related income (BRI).
Both sides reached the new extension, a bit longer than the previous 30 days agreed upon at the end of October, with the hope that it will provide a real platform to achieve significant progress towards a new agreement and, in the best case, even finalize it before January 9th.
