Paige Bueckers Will Have a Bigger WNBA Salary Than Caitlin Clark

Current UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers will be out-earning Indiana Fever icon Caitlin Clark (in terms of base WNBA salary) during the 2025 WNBA season.

Apr 5, 2024; Cleveland, OH, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) and Connecticut Huskies guard Paige Bueckers (5) react in the second quarter in the semifinals of the Final Four of the womens 2024 NCAA Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

UConn Huskies star guard and 2025 NCAA champion Paige Bueckers is all but guaranteed to be selected by the Dallas Wings with the No. 1 pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft on April 14, 2025.

However, even if Bueckers fell to the draft's No. 4 overall pick, she will still be making more money (strictly in terms of WNBA base salary) than Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark next season.

This is a byproduct of the WNBA's current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which is set to expire after this 2025 season. The CBA states that picks #1-4 of the 2024 WNBA Draft had a base salary of $76,535 during that 2024 season. Clark, being the 2024 draft's No. 1 overall pick, is part of that.

Her salary is then bumped to $78,066 for this upcoming 2025 season, then goes to $85,873 for 2026. The Fever then have a club option for 2027 (which they'd surely be picking up) which would pay Clark $97,582 before she becomes a restricted free agent in 2028.

Assuming that Bueckers is one of the first four picks of the 2025 WNBA Draft, she'll make $78,831 in the 2025 season, per the CBA.

This is a whopping $765 more than what Clark will make in 2025.

2021 Naismith College POTY
3x unanimous first-team All-American
$1.5M NIL valuation
Deals with Nike, Gatorade, CeraVe, more
Believed to be the first college player to receive equity in a pro sports league

Now, a national champion.

Paige Bueckers is big business. pic.twitter.com/s5cZNYDfvM

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) April 6, 2025

Of course, this is a slight difference; not to mention that both of these players make millions due to the endorsement deals and other means of making money outside of their base WNBA salary.

As for the rest of Bueckers' salary, she will make $80,408 in her second season (2026), $88,449 in 2027, and then $100,510 in 2028 if her team picks up her option.

As for the total monetary value of their respective rookie contracts, Clark's is worth $338,056 while Bueckers' is worth $348,198, which is a difference of $10,142 over the four total years (which is the length of every current WNBA rookie contract).

Once this current CBA is opted out of after this season, the expectation is that player salaries will increase dramatically. However, since Clark and Bueckers will be under their current contracts at that point, they won't be able to benefit from the new CBA (in terms of base WNBA salary) until their deals expire, barring any retroactive changes.

This is a large reason why current college players like Olivia Miles and Azzi Fudd were financially incentivized to play one more NCAA season and then declare for the 2026 WNBA Draft, which will be under the new CBA.

Again, this difference in salary is chump change for Clark and Bueckers. But it serves as proof as to why players want to negotiate a new CBA, as both these stars surely deserve to be making base WNBA salaries that are worth much more than something around $78,000.