Some WNBA Players Could Make More Than $1M Per Season Beginning In 2026
WNBA players are expected to make considerably more money beginning with the 2026 season when their new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal begins along with a renegotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement. Players can choose to opt out of their existing CBA by November of this year, which would then terminate at the end of the 2025 season.
The WNBA currently makes approximately $60 million per year from their media rights deals, so that number will increase to $200 million in 2026. The WNBA salary cap is $1,463,200 per team, which is merely $17.5 million of spending on player salaries across the entire league. The league takes in only about 40 percent of its own revenue after the NBA and outside investors get their share, and less than 10 percent of the total revenue actually finds its way into players’ salaries under the current CBA, which is a major departure from the roughly 50-50 splits that unions in the NFL and NBA have negotiated.
The WNBA's highest paid player, Jackie Young, currently makes $252,450 per season. The smallest salary outlined in the current CBA was the minimum contract in 2020, worth $57,000 annually. That category will increase to $66,079 in the assumed final year of the CBA in 2025. If salaries triple or quadruple beginning in 2026, some players could reach more than $1 million per season and the minimum salary could be close to the current highest salary.
