Caitlin Clark and other WNBA stars set for salary spikes amid new CBA proposal originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The WNBA and the WNBPA on Sunday agreed to a 40-day extension of the current collective bargaining agreement.
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For the second time since the 2025 season came to an end, the league and the players’ union agreed on extending the negotiation window to avoid what fans fear: a work stoppage that would alter the dynamic of the WNBA and slow the league’s momentum.
Though Caitlin Clark joining the Indiana Fever in 2024 was hardly the flashpoint event, the superstar point guard has been credited with introducing millions of new fans to the WNBA after those same fans saw her shatter NCAA scoring records at the University of Iowa.
Now a two-time All-Star who endured an injury-riddled second season in the pros, Clark’s WNBA future is of significant interest to fans — and to the league, which reportedly just raised the stakes in these slow-moving talks.
Salary cap to rise — and million-dollar max salaries
One day into the 40-day CBA extension, the WNBA reportedly made a new offer to the WNBPA that could get the ball rolling in terms of advancing the gridlocked negotiations.
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ESPN, among others, reported that the WNBA is guaranteeing $1 million maximum salaries for 2026; the max salary in 2025 was set at $249,244. Under the new deal, the average salary would be roughly $500,000, while the minimum salary would increase to $225,000 from just over $66,000.
This means that when Clark signs what many expect will be a max contract in 2027, she will be lined up for a multimillion-dollar deal that would break new ground in the WNBA.
Perhaps crucially, the deal includes a revenue-sharing component that the players’ union has been after since it opted out of the 2020 CBA last year.
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The league’s salary cap would immediately jump to $5 million in 2026, and it would grow annually based on revenue growth in each year of the CBA. It is a departure from the current agreement, in which the 2025 salary cap was set at $1.5 million, having grown at a fixed rate of three percent relative to the previous year.
According to ESPN, it is “unclear” what players think of the new offer, or whether it will be enough to kickstart meaningful negotiations. But the WNBA has taken the first shot in this new, 40-day window, and only time will tell where talks go from here.
