Michael Voepel
Multiple Authors
The WNBA gamers had many points to barter with their new collective bargaining settlement, some extra difficult than others. But salary is a foreign money every employee understands, and the league will supply historic features in gamers’ salaries for 2026 and past.
The WNBA board of governors unanimously ratified the phrases of a new collective bargaining settlement on Tuesday, at some point after the gamers additionally unanimously accredited 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 growth drafts for new franchises Toronto and Portland will be April 6, adopted by a large free company interval anticipated to start out 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 to be 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 Wilson, 6-foot-4 middle
Age to start out this season: 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 choose by the Las Vegas Aces, Wilson has averaged 21.4 factors, 9.3 rebounds and a pair of.0 blocks in her profession. The Las Vegas Journal-Review has reported that the Aces are desirous to signal the free agent Wilson to a supermax deal.
Last season, Wilson took a pay reduce 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 Loyd, who made $249,032.
Wilson has been so invaluable and sturdy for the Aces that it appears possible she will receives a commission as a lot as is allowed this season. Plus, the money worth for numerous league awards is also growing. Should Wilson win a fifth MVP this season, it could be value $60,000, in comparison with $15,450 final yr.
As for different elite gamers, the max salary for 2026 will be $1.19 million.
Average salary veteran
Example: Alanna Smith, 6-4 ahead
Age to start out this season: 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 precise vary for elite and midtier veteran salaries by observing how common managers construct groups beneath 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 Lynx, serving to them make the WNBA Finals in 2024 and incomes co-Defensive Player of the Year with Wilson in 2025.
Smith is the type of dependable veteran important for a group looking for a championship. She simply gained the Unrivaled title with Mist.
Minimum salary veteran
Erica Wheeler, 5-7 guard
Age to start out this season: 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 Storm, averaging 10.3 factors and three.3 assists. The season earlier than that, with the Indiana Fever, she 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 a few 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 no less than 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 approach Wheeler welcomed and handled Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark in 2024 was the kind of management common managers discover.
Elite rookie contract
Example: Caitlin Clark, 6-0 guard
Age to start out this season: 24
Years of WNBA expertise: 2
2025 salary: $78,066
Projected 2026 salary: $530,000
The customary WNBA rookie contracts have been for 3 years with a membership choice for a fourth, with gamers incomes extra for being drafted larger. The union made it a precedence to get higher pay for the 2026 incoming rookies and gamers equivalent to Clark, whose present rookie offers will be adjusted — diminished by 4% for every year elapsed since signing — to the new CBA parameters. For Clark, the No. 1 choose in 2024 coming into the third yr of her 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 conform to a three-year contract extension. Honors equivalent 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 resulting from 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’d have gotten beneath the outdated CBA and what they may get now’s significantly putting due to how a lot it accelerates their incomes potential.
Projected 2026 No. 1 draft choose
Example: Azzi Fudd, 5-11 guard
Age to start out this season: 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 ultimate 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 beneath the new CBA.
The rookie salary scale for 2026 begins at $500,000 for the No. 1 choose. The second choose will get $466,913, the third $436,016, and many others., and finishes at $289,133 for the final seven picks in the first spherical. Second- and third-round picks and every other rookies get $270,000.
The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13, with the Dallas Wings having the No. 1 choose. 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.
