What is the Average Salary of a WNBA Player in 2025?

Understanding the history of WNBA wages and what's at stake in the new CBA.

Kelsey Mitchell signed a supermax contract with the Indiana Fever worth $249,244 for the 2025 season. / Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

When the WNBA Players Association announced last October that it opted out of the current collective bargaining agreement, it shared a two-word explanation.

"It's business," the union posted on social media.

The players seized the opportunity to push for higher salaries because of the league's unprecedented success with record attendance and TV ratings in 2024 and a new $2.2 billion media rights deal that will begin in '26. The two sides have until the end of the '25 season to negotiate a new CBA and avoid a work stoppage.

Let's take a deep dive into WNBA player salaries.

Understanding WNBA salaries in 2025

Like the NBA, a "Standard Player Contract" is used as a template to determine WNBA player salaries, which were negotiated by the players union and league under the current CBA.

A rookie wage scale incentivizes players to prove their worth and cash in as free agents. WNBA salaries roughly range from a minimum of $66,000 to a super maximum contract of around $250,000.

In the NBA, league revenue—also known as Basketball Related Income (BRI) comprising television rights fees, sponsorships, ticket sales and merchandise sales—determines the players' salaries. Fifty percent of BRI goes to NBA player salaries under a salary cap system that limits team payrolls.

In the WNBA, 20% of league revenue goes to player salaries. For 2025, the team salary cap is $1,507,100 and the team payroll minimum is $1,261,440, according to Her Hoop Stats.

With the players union seeking a new CBA—and higher salaries—free agents signed one-year contracts this offseason to be positioned to capitalize on the new 11-year media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC Universal.

The average salary of a WNBA player in 2025

Going into the start of WNBA training camps, Spotrac listed the base salaries of 222 players on team rosters. The average base salary is $102,249.

Players with a base salary close to the league average are center Kiah Stokes ($103,000) and guard Tiffany Mitchell ($101,123) of the Las Vegas Aces, Dallas Wings guard Tyasha Harris ($100,013), guard Sophie Cunningham ($100,000) and forward Damiris Dantas ($100,000) of the Indiana Fever, Chicago Sky center Elizabeth Williams ($100,000) and Golden State Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini ($100,000).

The highest base salary of 2025 belongs to Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, the two-time All-Star who will make $$249,244 this season on a one-year contract. Aces guard Jewell Loyd, a six-time All-Star, has this year's second-highest base salary at $249,032 in the final season of a two-year deal.

The lowest base salary is $66,079 for third-round picks and undrafted rookies. The league's rookie wage scale also sets the base salaries for first-round selections (between $78,831 and $72,455) and second-round picks ($69,267). Rookie base salaries are not guaranteed and are only paid for time on a team roster.

Wings rookie guard Paige Bueckers, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft, has a base salary of $78,831. Fever star Caitlin Clark, last season's No. 1 overall selection and Rookie of the Year, drew a base salary of $76,535 in '24.

Clark's 2025 base salary is $78,066 — $765 less than Bueckers's rookie base salary.

Historical context: How WNBA salaries have changed over time

When the WNBA began in 1997, the average salary was only $28,000 with a maximum of $50,000. The rival American Basketball League (ABL), which started in 1996 (and folded in 1998), paid its players more with an average salary of $70,000.

By 2000, WNBA stars had grown weary of the meager pay and chose to remain with their clubs in Europe, where players could triple their WNBA salaries. “If things don’t change, I think fewer players are going to be interested in playing in the WNBA,” players union chief Pam Wheeler said.

In 2015, Phoenix Mercury star guard Diana Taurasi, the WNBA's top all-time scorer, sat out the WNBA season at the request of her Russian club team UMMC Ekaterinburg, which paid her nearly $1.5 million a year. In 2014, Taurasi made just under the league maximum of $107,000.

“We had to go to a communist country to get paid like capitalists, which is so backward to everything that was in the history books in sixth grade,” Taurasi once said.

In 2020, WNBA player salaries got a significant boost with a new CBA that brought major improvements in compensation and benefits.

With the salary cap rising 30% from $1 million to $1.3 million, maximum salaries doubled from $117,500 to $215,000. More importantly, the average salary finally reached six figures at nearly $130,000.

In all, WNBA players received a 53% increase in total cash compensation when factoring in base pay, performance bonuses, in-season tournament prize pools and a share of team marketing deals. By capitalizing on these new earning opportunities, a player could make more than $500,000 a year.

Challenges and opportunities for further salary growth

When the late NBA commissioner David Stern convinced his Board of Governors to create a women's pro basketball league, he firmly believed the WNBA—and women's sports—would eventually be profitable.

Stern's vision has come to fruition. The WNBA has entered a new era of prosperity with a multibillion-dollar media rights contract set to begin in 2026 that pays $200 million per year, a significant increase from the $60 million per year the league currently gets.

The newfound riches also present a golden opportunity for the players union to take a stand and demand a bigger slice of the league's revenues. How much more do the players want to be paid? Two-time WNBA champion Kelsey Plum said on The Residency Podcast that they aren't seeking NBA-level salaries.

“We’re asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared," Plum said of the NBA's 50-50 split with players on basketball-related income.

College stars with massive followings—like Clark, the former Iowa Hawkeyes sensation and current Fever superstar—are bringing new fans to the WNBA. That also means increased revenue. The Indianapolis Star reported that Clark had an economic impact of $36 million on the city of Indianapolis in 2024.

"Will Caitlin Clark ever be paid by the WNBA what she's really worth to that league? I don't think that's possible," Erin Kane, Clark's agent, told ESPN.

Kane believes her client isn't the only one who should be rewarded. "They all need to be paid more," she said of the players.

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