The WNBA is quickly gaining a lot of traction. Thanks to some excellent veterans and back-to-back electric rookie classes, the league’s popularity is surging as evidenced by record-breaking viewership, attendance, and social-media numbers.
This has also led to a discussion around salaries and contracts, and how they compare to the wages for NBA players and even college athletes.
Breaking Down WNBA Contracts
The WNBA has a league-wide salary cap, just like in the NBA and NFL. For the 2025 season, the salary cap is set at $1,507,100. For reference, the NBA’s salary cap for the 2025-26 season is $154.6 million.
However, unlike the NBA, where salaries are based on percentage points of the total salary cap, WNBA players are paid based on specific tiers, setting demarcations for the allowed salary.
As a result, the most that a WNBA player can earn this season is $249,244 — that is the salary for a veteran with over seven years of experience on a supermax deal (such as Kelsey Mitchell).
A veteran-minimum contract, which is available for all players with over three years of experience, is set at $74,305. Rookies sign a rookie-scale contract that is a three-year deal with a fourth-year option that is dependent on their draft positioning.
The first four draft picks in the 2025 WNBA Draft each signed a contract worth $348,198 that pays them $78,831 during their rookie year. Players drafted No. 4-8 sign a deal worth $334,115, while those drafted No. 9-12 ink a contract worth $320,040. The later a player goes in the draft, the less they earn.
Last season as a rookie, Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark signed a four-year, $338,056 contract. After earning $76,535 as a rookie, she will make $78,066 as a sophomore. Here’s a breakdown of her WNBA contract:
- 2024: $76,535
- 2025: $78,066
- 2026: $86,873
- 2027: $97,582 (team option)
Caitlin Clark's WNBA salary qualifies her for low income housing pic.twitter.com/UQ5t9xomx7
— Mike Pesca (@pescami)
For reference, Clark made approximately $3.1 million from her NIL deals during his final season at Iowa, which is why there’s so much debate about WNBA salaries.
Fortunately for Clark and other WNBA stars, the league’s popularity means they can sign lucrative endorsement deals to supplement their salary. For example, Clark reportedly has a $28 million sneaker deal with Nike, plus she has partnered with companies such as Gatorade, Wilson, State Farm, and Panini.
WNBA Contracts Compared to NBA and NCAA
There is an enormous gap between WNBA and NBA salaries. For the 2024-25 season, the minimum contract in the NBA is worth $1,157,153, just a few hundred thousand dollars shy of the total salary cap for an WNBA team.
Even the players on a two-way contract — meaning they are splitting time between the NBA and G League — earn way more than WNBA players at $578,577.
Similarly, the rookie scale for NBA players is totally different. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft will sign a $62,730,226 contract that pays him $13,825,920 during his rookie campaign.
In 2025, the NBA’s highest-paid player is Stephen Curry at $55,761,216. Meanwhile, the highest-paid player in the WNBA is Mitchell, who earned $249,244. With NBA salaries determined by percentage points of the cap, the next batch of supermax deals will be well over $300 million for five years, or an annual average of over $60 million.
Thanks to NIL (name, image, and likeness), many college basketball players are earning more than WNBA stars, too. Last year, Duke phenom Cooper Flagg was the highest-paid player in college basketball, with an estimated NIL valuation of $4.8 million.
UConn’s Paige Bueckers earned approximately $1.4 million from her NIL deals last season, but now her WNBA base salary will decrease to $78,831 with the Dallas Wings.
