The $16 Million Question: How Much Do WNBA Players REALLY Make? (2025 Salary Breakdown)

The conversation around WNBA player salaries has never been more intense, fueled by record-breaking viewership and the arrival of generational talents like Caitlin Clark. As of late 2024, the financial landscape of the WNBA is in a state of rapid transformation, moving far beyond the base salary figures that often dominate headlines. While the average base salary is a key metric, the true measure of a WNBA player's earnings—their total compensation—is a complex puzzle piece together from league bonuses, team marketing agreements, and, for the select few, massive endorsement deals that can eclipse their playing contract by hundreds of times.

To truly understand "how much WNBA players make" in 2025, one must look past the standard contract numbers and examine the four distinct income streams established under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), while also considering the dramatic impact of off-court branding and the contentious "prioritization clause" that affects overseas pay. The figures below reflect the most current salary data and the latest discussions shaping the league's financial future.

The 2025 WNBA Salary Structure: Minimum, Average, and Maximum Base Pay

The WNBA's current financial framework is governed by the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which has progressively increased player pay. While these figures represent the guaranteed money from a team contract, they are just the starting point for total player earnings.

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1. WNBA Base Salary: The Contract Foundation

• Maximum Base Salary: For the 2024 season, the maximum base salary for top-tier veteran players is approximately $252,450. This elite tier includes established stars like Jewell Loyd and Kahleah Copper.
• Average Base Salary: The most recent data for the WNBA suggests the average salary for players is approximately $147,745. This is a significant increase from previous years, reflecting the league's growth.
• Minimum Base Salary: The league minimum salary for a WNBA player is currently set at $62,285. This minimum applies to players with fewer than three years of service.
• Rookie Salaries: Top draft picks, such as 2024’s No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark, sign a four-year contract. Clark’s rookie contract is valued at $338,056 in total, averaging $84,514 per year.

The team salary cap for the 2025 season is set at $1,507,100, which teams must manage to field a full roster. This relatively low cap is a major point of contention and a primary driver behind players seeking income elsewhere.

2. Total Compensation: Bonuses, Marketing, and Prize Money

The current CBA introduced mechanisms to significantly boost the total compensation for the league's top players, allowing them to earn well above their base salary. This is where the true earning potential of a WNBA star begins to emerge.

The $500,000+ Earning Tier

Under the current agreement, the league's highest-paid players can earn cash compensation in excess of $500,000 annually. This total figure is reached through several additional income streams:

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• Performance Bonuses: Players receive bonuses for achieving accolades such as winning the MVP award, making an All-WNBA team, or winning the WNBA Championship.
• Marketing Agreements: The WNBA provides up to $1.5 million annually for "League Marketing Agreements" (LMAs). These are contracts offered to a select group of players to promote the league, allowing them to earn additional income without violating the salary cap.
• Prize Pools: New in the CBA is a prize pool for in-season tournaments, such as the Commissioner's Cup. The winning team's players receive a substantial bonus, which further increases their total cash compensation.
• Revenue Sharing: The CBA includes a revenue-sharing component where players receive a percentage of league revenue if certain financial targets are met. This is a critical element in the ongoing discussion about how to increase player pay.

The ability for a player to earn over half a million dollars through their WNBA contract, bonuses, and marketing agreements represents a major financial leap compared to the previous CBA, which was a more than tripling of the maximum compensation.

3. The Endorsement Effect: Where WNBA Players Make Millions

For a small, but growing, number of superstar WNBA players, their actual income is almost entirely driven by off-court sponsorships and endorsement deals. This income is not subject to the WNBA salary cap and represents the most significant financial disparity in the league.

The Caitlin Clark Phenomenon: The most dramatic example of this disparity is rookie Caitlin Clark. While her WNBA base salary is a modest $76,535 in her first year, her total 2025 earnings are estimated to be close to $16 million. This staggering figure means that 99% of her income comes from her endorsement portfolio, which includes major deals with Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, and others.

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This "Endorsement Effect" highlights a crucial point: for players with massive public appeal, their personal brand value is exponentially higher than their league-mandated playing salary. This trend is expected to continue as the WNBA's popularity and media rights deals grow, benefiting players like A'ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, and Breanna Stewart.

4. The Overseas Dilemma: Prioritization and the Future of Pay

For decades, playing overseas during the WNBA offseason was a necessity for most players to supplement their income, with many earning salaries two or three times higher than their WNBA contracts. This practice, however, is being phased out by the contentious "prioritization clause" in the current CBA.

• The Prioritization Clause: This rule mandates that players must report to their WNBA team by the start of the training camp or face suspension for the entire season. The intention is to ensure the WNBA gets the players' full focus and prevents fatigue-related injuries.
• Impact on Earnings: The clause forces players to choose between the higher, guaranteed overseas paycheck and their WNBA contract. This has effectively ended the practice of top players earning an extra $300,000 to $1 million playing in leagues in Turkey, Russia, or China.
• The Future: The WNBA’s long-term goal is to raise league salaries to a point where the choice to play overseas is no longer a financial necessity. Recent CBA discussions have seen proposals for a new maximum salary that could exceed $1 million or even $1.1 million with revenue sharing, and a new minimum salary of over $220,000. If adopted, these figures would drastically change the financial reality for every WNBA player, making the WNBA contract a genuine career-defining salary.