Inside the WNBA’s Proposed New Economic System: Bigger Share for Stars, Less for Middle Class

Whenever the WNBA and the players’ union are done at the negotiating table and basketball returns, the league will likely have its first million-dollar player.

In the last 29 seasons, WNBA players have earned more than $1 million—just not in the WNBA. Diana Taurasi’s contract with UMMC Ekaterinburg paid her seven figures, including paying her more than her 2014 WNBA salary to sit out the 2015 season. Three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker’s base salary in the WNBA never cracked $200,000, but she was one of the highest earners in women’s sports due to her overseas contracts and her endorsement portfolio. 

Now the WNBA is offering a supermax base salary of roughly $1,130,000—or 20% of the proposed $5.65 million salary cap in Year 1 of the CBA—but sources have said that the seven-figure payday for some will come at a cost to others. (The salary cap would increase over the length of the deal in line with the league’s revenue growth.) 

The league has not yet reached its line in the sand regarding the salary cap, multiple sources have told Front Office Sports. The players have proposed a salary cap of just under $9.5 million. Players met virtually Tuesday evening to discuss steps forward, according to multiple sources. This meeting followed the WNBA’s latest proposal shared Friday and a bargaining session Monday in which the league said a labor deal must be reached by March 10 to avoid delaying the season. 

The league’s proposal includes two tiers of max salaries, similar to the current CBA, according to one source familiar with negotiations. The supermax would account for 20% of the salary cap, and the standard max—roughly $988,750—would take up 17.5%. Unlike the current CBA, players would not be eligible to earn the supermax salary through a sign-and-trade deal. 

The supermax salary in 2025 was $249,244, and the standard max was $214,466. The veteran minimum was $78,831, and the minimum for players with less than three years of experience was $66,079. The average salary was roughly $125,000. 

The average salary in the league’s proposed CBA is at roughly $470,000, and the minimum—with no distinction between the veteran minimum and that for a player with less than three years of experience—would be just over $200,000. These are the figures without the league’s projected revenue sharing factored in; all told, sources say, players will not receive more than 15% of the league’s total revenue in the league’s proposal.

The league and players’ union are also aligned on adding two developmental players per team who will be paid a stipend, as well as a payment per game. The league has also proposed a seventh guaranteed contract per team, up from the current six. 

Under the current CBA, WNBA teams can roster no more than 12 players and no fewer than 11. However, due to injuries and other extenuating circumstances, many teams drop below 11 for brief periods. Others, like the Las Vegas Aces, finished the 2025 WNBA season with 11 to stay under the $1.5 million salary cap. 

The WNBPA has proposed that teams be required to carry 12 players at all times. 

Roster Gymnastics

The WNBA’s hard salary cap has led stars in recent years to give teams discounts to spend the money elsewhere on the roster.

In 2025, the supermax accounted for roughly 16.5% of the salary cap, and four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson made even less than that. Wilson was not the highest-paid player in the league or even on her team last year; Jewell Loyd was the Aces’ top earner at $249,032. Wilson was paid $200,000, roughly 20% under what she was eligible to be paid. Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young were also signed to team-friendly deals with the Aces. 

Similarly, the success of teams like the Phoenix Mercury, Atlanta Dream, Minnesota Lynx, and New York Liberty were contingent on the sacrifice of star players. 

But if 20% of the salary cap is earmarked for supermax players, that sacrifice will be even more drastic. A similar pay cut taken by Wilson under the new system would amount to $226,000 less per year. And with or without discounts from star players, serious gymnastics would be required to build a competitive roster. 

In addition to the percentage of the salary cap allotted to supermax and max players, the percentage going to rookie scale contracts will increase under this proposal. For example, Aliyah Boston—the Indiana Fever’s No. 1 overall pick in 2023—would earn a salary of roughly $541,000 in 2026, according to sources. This equates to about 9.6% of the salary cap. Under the previous CBA, Boston’s salary took up 5.6% of the cap. 

Last season, the minimum for players with less than three years of experience was 4.4% of the cap, and the veteran minimum was 5.2% of the cap. Under the league’s current proposal, the minimum base salary before projected earnings from revenue-sharing would take up roughly 3.6% of the salary cap. (However, 3.6% of $5.6 million is just over $200,000—far more than players on the minimum earn now.)

The proposed new CBA, then, squeezes at least two groups: the league’s middle class and GMs trying to build deep teams.

For example, if the Fever paid Kelsey Mitchell the $1.13 million supermax and spent a combined $1.08 million on Boston and Caitlin Clark’s mandated rookie-scale salaries, that would leave the team with roughly $3.4 million to spend on nine more roster spots including newly drafted players. This equates to roughly $382,200, or 6.7% of the cap per player, and that’s if Indiana has only one max player on its roster. This is almost $100,000 less than the proposed average salary. 

A more stark example is the Aces, who exemplify that at least three max-caliber players are required to win a WNBA title. (That dynamic could shift as the league expands.) Based on what players earned on the Aces’ roster last year, Loyd would make $1.13 million and Wilson would make $904,000. Gray would earn roughly $887,000, and Young’s salary would come out to about $768,400. In total these four players would account for $3,689,400, or roughly 65% of the cap. This would mean the remaining eight players would earn $245,075 each, not much more than the league’s proposed minimum salary and roughly $225,000 less than the average. 

The union’s proposals have not included max and minimum salaries up until this point. Instead, they are trying to reach an agreement on a salary cap before agreeing to how it’s split up among players. However, sources have said that the union would like to see a similar percentage that’s been proposed by the league go to max salaries.