What is Caitlin Clark's WNBA salary? How much do players make?
As a result of the historic rise in the league's overall popularity during the 2024 season, the players' union opted out of the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement last October with hopes of striking a new deal that provides improved benefits, with increased player compensation being at the forefront of their agenda.
In response to the players' union classifying their Thursday meeting with the league on a new CBA as a "missed opportunity," players wore t-shirts that read "Pay Us What You Owe Us" during warmups of the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday night.
With WNBA player salaries a topic of national discussion, what is Caitlin Clark's contracted compensation?
What is Caitlin Clark's salary?
According to Spotrac, Clark's four-year rookie contract provides her with an average annual salary of $84,514, totaling $338,056 over the length of the agreement.
Her season-by-season payout is a slightly different story, as Clark was paid $76,535 in 2024 and is scheduled to earn $78,066 during this current season. Clark's base pay increases to $85,873 in 2026 and concludes at $97,582 in 2027 during a final club option season of her contract.
How much do WNBA players make?
Currently, each WNBA team works with a salary cap of $1,507,100. There is also a required $1,261,440 minimum to spend.
Per the current operating CBA and Her Hoop Stats, the league's super-maximum is $249,244. The regular maximum contract is $214,466.
The minimum contract to players with two or less years of service is $66,079 and $78,831 to WNBA players with three or more years of service.
Who has the largest contract value in the WNBA?
As of July 20, 2025, Dallas Wings' guard Arike Ogunbowale is the WNBA's highest-paid player according to her total contract value. The former Notre Dame star is in the final year of her three-year contract that she signed in 2023 that pays her a total of $725,952.
The title for largest average annual value in the league belongs to Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young, whose AAV clocks in at $252,450 per Spotrac.
When is the deadline for a new WNBA collective bargaining agreement?
While both the players' union and the league continue to work on finding common ground to finalize a new CBA, the deadline for an agreement is October 31, 2025.
If the two sides cannot reach a new CBA beforehand, a work stoppage would commence and the start of the 2026 WNBA season would be thrust into jeopardy.
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‘They're absolutely underpaid': Economists weigh in on WNBA labor showdown
They chatted over breakfast the morning of the WNBA all-star game. Some of the players who have led the fight to overhaul the WNBA's financial structure held an impromptu meeting early last Saturday to air out their frustrations over how labor negotiations with the league had stalled. Out of that conversation came the idea for a bold new approach to the WNBA's labor standoff. Players decided that it was time to stop bargaining primarily behind closed doors and to instead bring their message to the masses. Later that same day, players union leaders gave every WNBA all-star a black T-shirt with the slogan 'Pay Us What You Owe Us' emblazoned in white letters across the front. The all-stars unanimously donned those shirts during pregame warmups in front of a sellout crowd of nearly 17,000 and millions more viewers watching from home on ABC. 'The players are what is building this brand,' all-star game MVP and players union vice president Napheesa Collier said Saturday. 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