The WNBA finals concluded this season with strong viewership numbers not seen since the league’s debut in the 90s.
The surge comes of course from the popularity of players like Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, A’ja Wilson and Alyssa Thomas who have drawn attention in the past few years with their showstopping play. But what some thought would be a short-lived boost has settled into something more permanent.
So why are WNBA players still getting paid far less relative to their team’s budget than NBA players do? WNBA player salaries account for less than 10% of the league’s profit share. The NBA’s? A whopping 50%.
In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed by President John F. Kennedy, prohibiting pay discrimination based on sex. It was a long fight for that act to be passed, and it didn’t change everything immediately. The Act set out to regulate pay within workplaces, but when whole organizations treat all of their employees equally badly—and those employees happen to be women—there’s little the courts can do.
Despite the WNBA’s surge in popularity, Bueckers cautioned in a recent interview that some in the league have had to travel overseas in the offseason to play for other teams and make ends meet.
Union negotiations are at center court for both leagues. In the NBA, the players’ union has had much more success in negotiating guaranteed profit participation. The WNBA’s current contracts by contrast have no guarantee whatsoever, despite union efforts.
With little understanding of the math and the contract negotation process, people are quick to knock the WNBA without even watching — “women can’t dunk,” “they don’t know how to play,” “they get paid less because nobody is watching” — pretending a skill gap is the real culprit.
It speaks not just to math illiteracy, but to how uncommon it is for female athletes to be treated like professionals.
Skill can change minds, and when people watch, unsurprisingly they find out how incredible these women are. Caitlin Clark was a phenomenon not because she led her team to blowouts — many of the games were extremely close. She was a phenomenon because she had to play hard and prove herself against other stellar players over and over again. The players were all fun to watch, together.
Watching them changed minds. There was enough buzz that casual viewers finally tuned in. They ended up hooked.
Despite this, Clark made only $76,000 her rookie year in the WNBA, .038% of the league’s revenue, which set a record high that year. By contrast, the top draft pick in the 2024 NBA draft made $12.57 million — nearly 300% more relative to the NBA’s revenue. The average salary in the NBA is nearly $12 million per year with the highest-paid player earning $59.6 million. In the WNBA, the average is just over $100,000, and the highest, $252,450.
Clark’s playing may have been what brought more people to watch, but WNBA viewership is constantly increasing, while it’s decreasing for the NBA. That puts the WNBA players union in a uniquely strong position; negotiators have already opted out of renewing the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement.
It has been 53 years since Title IX was passed, prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. Its passing meant that girls finally had opportunities to play sports consistently. Onlookers understandably may have believed that, once Title IX became law, it was done: women’s sports would gain equality and everything would be fair. Over five decades in, we know that has not been the case. For the players, this is the next watershed moment.
If the WNBA can’t deliver, perhaps another league will. Clark, for instance, was offered $15 million to play in rapper Ice Cube’s BIG3 3×3 basketball league for just a 10-week contract. She was also offered seven figures to play in another 3×3 league, Unrivaled, which was founded by former WNBA players.
For profit participation to matter, the WNBA will need to start making consistent, high profit through its media contracts — possible now more than ever due to their players’ hard work. At the end of September, the USA Network and WNBA announced an 11-year broadcasting deal. Game rights will cost the USA Network $200 million a year — a figure that would alone meet the league’s entire 2024 revenue.
Meanwhile, WNBA players are making their case publicly. During warm-ups at this year’s All-Star game, they wore matching t-shirts that read “Pay Us What You Owe Us. ” When the MVP trophy was awarded, the sold-out crowd chanted, “Pay them!”