“What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.”
― Samuel Gompers
WNBA
The National Basketball Association Board of Governors created the Women’s National Basketball Association in 1996 with play beginning in 1997. The first franchises were located in cities that already had an NBA team. Team nicknames and uniform colors were coordinated with each city’s NBA team. The motto of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association is “Bet on Women”.
WNBPA
The WNBPA is the first labor union for professional women athletes. Like other public and private sector unions, the WNBPA engages in collective bargaining for wages, benefits, working conditions and grievance procedures.
Current agreement
The gender inequality in professional basketball is stark when the current WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement is compared to the arrangements in the men’s NBA. WNBA rookie contracts start at $72,000. Minimum salary in the NBA is $1.27 million. The average WNBA salary is $102,249. The average NBA salary is $13 million. 25 per cent of WNBA profits are shared with players if the league has met meets its revenue targets for the year. NBA players receive 50 per cent of all revenue generated regardless of league targets. Only one WNBA player per team may earn up to $250,000 per year.
Growing WNBA
WNBA has not made a profit in its 28-year history. The NBA has subsidized WNBA losses since the league started in 1997. In 2024 the league lost $50 million. That was then; this is now.
The WNBA has made a $2.2 billion media deal which will provide $200 million a year starting in 2026.
The 2024 WNBA season had record television viewership, arena attendance, and merchandise sales thanks, in great part, to young exciting players like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Over the next five years the league will expand to 18 teams with the new teams each paying a $250 million fee to join.
“Pay us what you owe us”
The current Collective Bargaining Agreement was signed in January of 2020. Given the growth and increasing interest in the league, the WNBPA exercised an ‘opt out’ clause of the agreement in October 2024. Now the CBA will end at the end of October, 2025. At stake are an improved revenue sharing structure, better salaries and benefits, and a higher salary cap. If negotiations stall there exists the possibility of a player strike or a management lockout.
WNBA management needs to be aware of overseas professional women’s basketball. Russia’s VTB United league pay average is in the range of $200k-450k per season. Europe’s Euroleague pay average is in the range of $500k-800k per season.
At the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game, players wore warm up shirts that read, “Pay us what you owe us”. If the WNBA digs in and refuses to pay the players a fair salary, maybe someone else will.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-National-Basketball-Association
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/109897-what-does-labor-want-we-want-more-schoolhouses-and-less
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/wnba-loses-50-million-every-193640681.html
https://www.sportbible.com/nba/steph-curry-golden-state-warriors-nba-wnba-basketball-587965-20250721
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/21/why-wnba-players-are-wearing-pay-us-what-you-owe-us-shirts.html
https://europrobasket.com/overseas-basketball-salaries/
Thanks and a tip of the hat to JazzyJoeyD for the image.
