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The WNBA and the Women's National Basketball Players Association have avoided a doomsday scenario that would have wiped games off the calendar for the 2026 season by reaching a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement.
The new CBA is reflective of the WNBA's growth in the 2020s. The salary cap will more than quadruple, from $1.5 million to $7 million, for the league's 15 teams; supermax salaries will start at $1.4 million for eligible players, who only would have made around $249,000 under the 2020 CBA.
Though salaries are going up across the board, this is great news for many of the league's best and most decorated players, like Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson and Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, both All-WNBA selections in 2025.
MORE: Why Caitlin Clark still won't make the WNBA's average salary under new CBA
Mitchell, the Fever's leading scorer a season ago, had the WNBA's largest base salary in 2025 at $249,244. With a fivefold increase coming her way as she hits free agency, Mitchell stands to earn the league's highest salary again in 2026 -- unless she takes a "hometown discount" to return to Indiana.
The same goes for players like Napheesa Collier, Arike Ogunbowale and Jackie Young -- who had the WNBA's largest contract at two years and just under $505,000 total.
Wilson, the reigning MVP, made $200,000 last year, taking slightly less money to help the Aces build a championship-caliber roster. Vegas won their third championship in four years, and Wilson would be within her right to refuse further discounts on her next contract.
For players on rookie-scale contracts like Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, their own salary increases are coming -- but they won't make $1 million from a WNBA contract just yet.
Clark and Reese can sign their max extensions in 2027, when they enter the final year of their rookie deals. Bueckers will have to wait until 2028.
But with further financial growth expected, the size of the max deals these players can sign might be larger in 24 months than if they were to sign them now.
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