The ongoing negotiations over the WNBA’s CBA (collective bargaining agreement) have added yet another chapter, and this time the new proposal is coming from the players’ perspective. The WNBPA has revealed its latest contract requests, showing that the players’ union and league leadership remain far apart in their ideas for how to move forward.
Both sides agree that player salaries should include a percentage of the W’s revenue, but the WNBPA is asking for double the share that the league’s leadership was willing to offer in its last deal, according to The Athletic. The new proposal states that about 30% of the total WNBA and team revenue should go to the players, while the organization’s last deal suggested a share that was less than 15% and decreased over the life of the CBA.
The WNBPA wants players to receive 29% of the previous season’s gross revenue, including a one-time adjustment to account for the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media rights deal. Then the players’ share of total revenue would increase by 1% each following season, ending up to be 34% by the last year of the new CBA.
The players’ association is also requesting that the salary cap be determined by taking the players’ share of the previous season’s total revenue, subtracting the cost of certain player benefits, and dividing that total equally between each team. The benefits specified include costs for medical insurance, local transportation, and housing.
The league’s last proposal would have raised the average player’s salary to over $500,000, while the minimum salary would remain around $225,000. A salary cap increase to $5 million, which would be directly tied to revenue growth in each year the agreement is valid, is also included in the offer made in early December.
Those monetary values are a slight increase from the W leadership’s previous offer. In early November, the league presented a proposal featuring a maximum salary exceeding $1.1 million through revenue sharing, a jump from the 2025 figures of a $249,244 supermax and $66,079 minimum.
The offer also included a minimum salary of more than $220,000 and an average salary above $460,000. However, talks were guaranteed to continue after the WNBPA dismissed the proposal, with at least one player calling it a “slap in the face.”
The two sides have until the extended deadline of January 9, 2026, to reach an agreement before they’re at risk of entering the WNBA’s first-ever work stoppage.