How the new WNBA CBA will impact every player’s salary in 2026
The WNBA gamers had many points to barter with their new collective bargaining settlement, some extra sophisticated than others. But salary is a forex every employee understands, and the league will provide historic positive factors in gamers’ salaries for 2026 and past.
The WNBA board of governors unanimously ratified the phrases of a new collective bargaining settlement on Tuesday, in the future after the gamers additionally unanimously permitted the seven-year CBA. But the league’s common managers are already laborious at work with the compressed timeline for constructing their groups this season. The enlargement drafts for new franchises Toronto and Portland will be April 6, adopted by an enormous free company interval anticipated to begin April 7 and the collegiate/abroad draft April 13.
Now that we’ve extra of the specifics of salary construction, listed here are some examples of what it will appear like for gamers of all ranges for the 2026 season, when the salary cap will be $7 million per group, in comparison with $1.5 million in 2025.
Jump to salaries: elite veteran | average veteran | Minimum veteran | elite rookie | Top draft picks
elite veteran
Example: A’ja Wilson6-foot-4 middle
Age to begin season this: 29
Years of WNBA expertise: 8
2025 salary: $200,000
Projected 2026 salary: $1.4 million, supermax
Wilson gained her third WNBA title and unprecedented fourth MVP award in 2025. The 2018 No. 1 draft decide by the Las Vegas AcesWilson has averaged 21.4 factors, 9.3 rebounds and a pair of.0 blocks in his profession. The Las Vegas Journal-Review has reported that the Aces are wanting to signal the free agent Wilson to a supermax deal.
Last season, Wilson took a pay lower from the supermax, which was then $249,244, to assist the Aces afford the championship roster round her. She wasn’t her group’s highest-paid participant in 2025; that was guard Jewell Loydwho made $249,032.
Wilson has been so useful and sturdy for the Aces that it appears seemingly she will receives a commission as a lot as is allowed this season. Plus, the money worth for varied league awards can be rising. Should Wilson win a fifth MVP this season, it could be price $60,000, in comparison with $15,450 final yr.
As for different elite gamers, the most salary for 2026 will be $1.19 million.
Average salary veteran
Example: Alanna Smith6-4 ahead
Age to begin season this: 29
Years of WNBA expertise: 7
2025 salary: $150,000
Projected 2026 salary: $600,000
The WNBA is itemizing the “average” salary as being $583,800 in 2026, which is an estimate. We will get a greater sense of the present vary for elite and midtier veteran salaries by observing how common managers construct groups underneath the new CBA.
Smith, drafted No. 8 in 2019, spent 4 seasons establishing herself earlier than she actually clicked with the Chicago Sky as a starter in 2023. The previous two seasons, she has been an enormous a part of the Minnesota Lynxserving to them make the WNBA Finals in 2024 and incomes co-Defensive Player of the Year with Wilson in 2025.
Smith is the form of dependable veteran important for a group in search of a championship. She simply gained the Unrivaled title with Mist.
Minimum salary veteran
Erica Wheeler5-7 guard
Age to begin season this: 35
Years of WNBA expertise: 10
2025 salary: $78,831
Projected 2026 salary: $300,000
Wheeler made the veteran minimal final season with the Seattle Stormaveraging 10.3 factors and three.3 assists. The season earlier than that, with the Indiana Fevershe made $202,154 and averaged 3.6 factors and 1.8 assists. She gave as a lot effort and dedication in each conditions, which partly explains her worth even in her mid-30s.
Wheeler’s expertise and team-first mindset can assist a franchise. Plus, she nonetheless has on-court abilities, as we noticed throughout the Unrivaled season. The minimal for gamers with zero years of expertise is $270,000; one to 3 years is $277,500; 4 to 6 years is $285,000; seven to 9 years is $292,500; and 10 or extra is $300,000. Wheeler will at the very least be in that final class.
Undrafted out of Rutgers in 2013, she needed to work to earn a spot in the league. She has carried an underdog mentality gracefully, together with as All-Star Game MVP in 2019. The manner Wheeler welcomed and handled Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark in 2024 was the kind of management common managers discover.
Elite rookie contract
Example: Caitlin Clark6-0 guard
Age to begin season this: 24
Years of WNBA expertise: 2
2025 salary: $78,066
Projected 2026 salary: $530,000
The commonplace WNBA rookie contracts have been for 3 years with a membership choice for a fourth, with gamers incomes extra for being drafted increased. The union made it a precedence to get higher pay for the 2026 incoming rookies and gamers comparable to Clark, whose current rookie offers will be adjusted — lowered by 4% for every year elapsed since signing — to the new CBA parameters. For Clark, the No. 1 decide in 2024 coming into the third yr of his rookie deal, that ought to be practically $530,000.
And due to a new CBA feature called “EPIC” — Exceptional Performance on Initial Contract — gamers can renegotiate the fourth yr of their rookie deal and comply with a three-year contract extension. Honors comparable to being named to the All-WNBA first or second group might get them a max deal, or successful MVP a supermax deal. Clark was restricted to 13 video games final yr because of accidents. But she was All-WNBA as a rookie in 2024 and thus will be eligible for a max deal in 2027.
This CBA dramatically improves all gamers’ salaries. For these nonetheless on rookie offers, the distinction between what they might have gotten underneath the outdated CBA and what they might get now’s significantly placing due to how a lot it accelerates their incomes potential.
Projected 2026 No. 1 draft decide
Example: Azzi Fudd5-11 guard
Age to begin season this: 23
Projected 2026 salary: $500,000
Fudd was eligible age-wise for the WNBA draft final season since she had redshirted at UConn in 2023-24. But she opted to make use of her remaining yr of school eligibility and is chasing an ideal season and a second consecutive NCAA championship with the Huskies. She will profit by beginning her WNBA profession underneath the new CBA.
The rookie salary scale for 2026 begins at $500,000 for the No. 1 decide. The second decide will get $466,913, the third $436,016, and so on., and finishes at $289,133 for the final seven picks in the first spherical. Second- and third-round picks and another rookies get $270,000.
The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13, with the Dallas Wings having the No. 1 decide. Fudd, Spain’s Awa Fam and TCU‘s Olivia Miles are projected as the top-three picks in ESPN’s most up-to-date mock draft.
