WNBA Players Win 364% Salary Cap Increase in Historic 7-Year Deal — The Largest Percentage Raise in Pro Sports History

The WNBA and the Women's National Basketball Players Association reached a tentative agreement on a landmark collective bargaining agreement this week that includes a 364 percent increase in the league's salary cap — rising from $1.5 million per team in 2025 to $7 million in 2026 — ending more than a year of bitter labor negotiations and delivering what organizers described as the largest single-year percentage salary cap increase in professional sports history. The seven-year deal runs from the 2026 season through 2032 and transforms the economic foundation of women's professional basketball.

Under the terms of the agreement, average player salaries will rise from roughly $120,000 in 2025 to approximately $600,000 in 2026, with the minimum salary jumping from $66,079 to between $270,000 and $300,000 depending on years of service. Maximum salaries for the highest-paid players will be set at $1.4 million annually — the first time any WNBA contract has exceeded $1 million. By the end of the deal in 2032, minimum salaries are projected to range from $340,000 to $380,000. The agreement also includes the WNBA's first-ever revenue-sharing arrangement, with players receiving nearly 20 percent of league revenues on average over the life of the deal. Additional provisions include significantly improved travel standards: the elimination of commercial and charter-coach arrangements that players had long criticized, replaced by first-class travel across the board.

The deal was reached in the early hours of Wednesday morning after negotiations that had stretched for more than a year and occasionally grown publicly contentious. Marquee players including A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, and Sabrina Ionescu had been vocal throughout the process about the need for compensation that reflected the dramatic growth in WNBA viewership and attendance. The 2025 WNBA season shattered multiple records: average attendance hit an all-time high of 11,200 fans per game, national television ratings on ESPN and ABC grew more than 40 percent year over year, and merchandise sales more than doubled. Players argued those metrics made the case for transformative pay increases.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert called the deal 'historic' and a reflection of the league's 'extraordinary momentum.' WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike said the agreement 'represents what we've been fighting for — real equity and the beginning of closing the gap between what WNBA players contribute to this sport and what they're compensated for doing it.' Some critics noted that the new deal still leaves WNBA salaries dramatically below those of NBA counterparts; the NBA minimum salary for the 2025-26 season was $1.1 million, while even the WNBA's new maximum of $1.4 million barely exceeds that floor. But even critics acknowledged the scale of the improvement: a player earning the WNBA minimum in 2025 will see her salary increase by roughly 380 percent by the first year of the new deal.

The new CBA ensures the 2026 season will begin on time. Had negotiations failed, players had the contractual ability to opt out of their contracts en masse, potentially triggering a work stoppage that would have imperiled one of the league's most eagerly anticipated seasons. The tentative deal still requires ratification by a majority vote of WNBA players, expected within two weeks. League officials said they anticipated that vote to be overwhelmingly affirmative. The agreement arrives as the WNBA prepares for an expansion era: the league welcomed the Golden State Valkyries as its 14th franchise in 2025 and has announced plans to add at least two more teams by 2028, with Portland, Denver, and Philadelphia among front-runners. The new salary structure was designed partly to make the WNBA a competitive destination for international stars who currently spend off-seasons in Europe's better-compensated leagues.