The latest CBA proposal from the Women’s National Basketball Association to the WNBA Players Association includes a maximum base salary of $1 million in 2026, a source with knowledge of the situation told CBS Sports on Monday. The proposal — which comes after the two sides recently agreed to a 40-day extension of the current CBA — also includes a minimum salary of more than $225,000 and would bump the league’s salary cap to $5 million in Year 1 of the new deal. The WNBA’s minimum salary and salary cap were $66,079 and $1.5 million in the 2025 season, respectively.
The supermax in 2025 was $249,244. The league’s proposal would push the max salary to seven figures and that number could be more than $1.2 million based on projected revenue sharing, per sources.
Meanwhile, the league’s proposal would see the salary cap rise to $5 million in Year 1, and it would be tied directly to revenue growth in each year of the CBA.
Player salaries figure to increase substantially in whatever deal is eventually reached between the WNBA and the players. The players, however, have voiced that changing the revenue-sharing model is a top priority in the new CBA. Here’s more from CBS Sports’ Jack Maloney:
While the players want more money, a new revenue-sharing model is their top priority, not just higher salaries.
“If me and you aren’t set on going to the correct restaurant, who cares what we’re ordering as an appetizer?” WNBPA first vice president Kelsey Plum said earlier this year. “First, second, third is rev share [and] salary. So when I say that we continue to propose and the counter proposals that are coming back are further away from where we thought we would be, that to me is — and I think a lot of the players are in agreement as a union — this is literally the meat and potatoes.”
Under the current CBA, however, the salary cap — and thus, player salaries — increases at a fixed rate of 3% per year. The players are pushing for a new model where salaries grow with the business.
Currently, players reportedly only receive about 9% of all revenue, a far cry from the 49-51% of basketball-related income that NBA players receive. While the current CBA does have a clause to trigger revenue sharing if the WNBA hits certain benchmarks, they have never been met, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There has not yet been a public response from the players union regarding the league’s latest proposal.
Sunday’s 40-day extension of the current CBA keeps it intact through Jan. 9, 2026.
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