WNBA player salaries have doubled in the last five years

Question

The claim contains some truth, but it oversimplifies what has happened with WNBA pay. In 2020, the league and the players’ union agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that significantly raised salaries, improved bonuses, and added new benefits. The average WNBA base salary rose from roughly $75,000 before the agreement to about $130,000 in recent seasons, with top players able to earn well over $200,000 before endorsements. While these increases are substantial and represent real progress, they do not amount to salaries literally doubling across the entire league. The growth isn’t uniform — star players and veterans saw larger increases, while the minimum salary and rookie contracts did not rise as dramatically.

It’s also important to distinguish between average salary, maximum salary, and total compensation, which may include marketing deals or league-sponsored overseas opportunities. Some headlines emphasize sharp increases in earnings, but those often refer to total compensation rather than official WNBA salaries alone. When comparing league-wide averages, salaries have risen by a large margin but have not doubled within a five-year span. Therefore, the claim exaggerates the scale of the increase, even though WNBA pay has clearly grown.

Answer 1

 ESPN article’s main points about the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations, including salary increases and long-term vision, are accurate and consistent with current reporting on the topic. Negotiations between the Women’s National Basketball Association and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association are ongoing, with the current CBA expiring and both sides extending the negotiating deadline into early 2026 as they work toward a new deal. Multiple reports confirm that the league’s latest proposals include substantially higher salaries, with a maximum base salary around $1 million in 2026 and projected total compensation (including revenue-sharing) exceeding $1.2 million for top players, as well as average salaries above half a million dollars and minimum salaries well above recent levels — all backed by increases to team salary caps. Revenue sharing tied to league growth and the structure of compensation are central sticking points, and players continue to advocate for models that ensure player pay grows with league success rather than fixed increases, involving issues like revenue sharing, benefits, and housing provisions. These developments reflect broad trends in coverage of the WNBA CBA talks and the league’s stated long-term vision for expanding player pay and professionalizing the sport.

Answer 2

This claim is true and is backed up by the WNBA commissioner and ESPN statistics. In 2019, the WNBA was struggling to generate any revenue and was on the downward slope entering COVID. However, this wasn't the end; this was the start of all the changes that would lead to these crazy changes in how much the league and players were making. In 2020, the salary cap was at just 2 million dollars, and if you look at the stats today, you can see it has reached nearly 6 million. Although they still have a lot of work in the future, the changes the WNBA has made to influence women's basketball are really amazing and I can't wait to see where the future goes.

https://www.espn.co.uk/wnba/story/_/id/47813218/wnba-cba-collective-bargaining-agreement-negotiations-salary-cap