WNBA: Silver promises salary increase, but the debate is the formula

Salary Increase for WNBA Players in the New Collective Bargaining Agreement

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 “absolute numbers” as the measure of salary growth, rather than the proportion of total revenue.

I don’t think proportion is the right way to look at it because there’s a lot more revenue in the NBA. I think you should look at the absolute numbers in terms of what they’re making. They’re going to get a big increase in this collective bargaining cycle and they deserve it.

Adam Silver

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

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

A key point in the negotiations, according to the players, is how salaries should be determined amid the league’s notable growth. The players are seeking a system similar to that of the NBA, where the percentage of revenue allocated to salaries increases with the growth of the business. In the NBA, the salary cap is determined by basketball-related income (BRI), with players receiving approximately half of that amount, as established in their collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

On the other hand, the league’s proposals 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 commented 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 CBA, we would decrease, in percentage terms, 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, and a new media rights deal worth $2.2 billion on the way. When asked during the Finals about the points of disagreement between the players and the owners in the CBA negotiations, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert highlighted the importance of “balancing” the increase in player salaries with the “long-term viability of the league.”

That’s what we’re trying 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 by the end of the decade. So it’s important that incoming owners have the opportunity for a viable economic model for the future.

Cathy Engelbert

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