'Seriously broken' - Paige Bueckers's new salary a reminder how little WNBA players earn

You might think a big paycheque would be a slam dunk.

Basketball player Paige Bueckers, after helping UConn win its 12th national championship on Monday, became the WNBA's No. 1 draft pick by the Dallas Wings.

The three-time, first-team All-American has done the nighttime talk show circuit, made headlines around the world, and in a month Bueckers will make her WNBA debut when the Wings open their season against the Minnesota Lynx.

"It's a great time to be in women's sports," Bueckers told Good Morning America on Wednesday.

Yet basketball's newest star is projected to earn just $78,831 US for her rookie year — about $109,480 Cdn, or less than the real median household income in the States. The No. 1 draft pick for the NBA, by comparison, can expect to earn $13.8 million US in his rookie year, according to sports salary reporting site Spotrac.

Still, Bueckers's salary isn't unexpected. The details are right there in the rookie salary scale system in the WNBA's collective bargaining agreement. And it's a slight uptick from last year, when first-round pick Caitlin Clark was drafted with a starting salary of $76,535 US for her rookie season.

BREAKING: Paige Bueckers is signing a 3-year deal with Unrivaled (per @kendra__andrews). Bueckers’ Unrivaled deal, after one year, is expected to exceed her entire projected 4-year WNBA rookie salary.“Bueckers' first-year salary for the 10-week Unrivaled season will exceed what… pic.twitter.com/7gv8RWx8AE —@WNBACentral_

But this is coupled with the news that Bueckers is also signing with the 3-on-3 league Unrivaled, where she will reportedly earn more in just one year of playing than she could in her entire four-year contract with the Wings. And now, some fans and industry observers are calling this a sobering reminder of just how little WNBA players are paid.

"The W should be embarrassed," said one fan on X.

"The economics of the WNBA just don't add up... something is seriously broken," wrote another.

"Paige Bueckers' Unrivaled contract puts any future WNBA salary to shame," wrote the Pro Football and Sports Network website.

Bueckers is projected to earn just $78,831 US during her rookie year with Dallas. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

The rise of the WNBA

Women's basketball has experienced a dramatic rise in popularity over the last few years, between the emergence of superstar players like Clark, the expansion of the WNBA, and a surge in March Madness viewership.

The arrival of Clark supercharged the WNBA last year, with league attendance nearly doubling over 2023. The Indiana Fever in January announced a new $78 million US training facility to open in 2027 that will give the team its own space apart from the NBA's Pacers.

"There's been growing fan momentum around women's sports for a few years now, and basketball has been at the center of it," wrote the ratings company Nielsen in its 2024 sports wrapup.

Last year, interest in the league increased by 29 per cent year-over-year according to Nielsen Fan Insights. Regular season viewership increased 201 per cent in 2024 over the previous season, and some 800 per cent compared to 2014. About 3.4 million people tuned into the WNBA All-Star game in July, Nielsen reported.

And given all this buzz, it's not surprising some people are so shocked by Bueckers's WNBA salary, says Cheri Bradish, the director of the Future of Sport Lab and Chair of Marketing Management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

"The business of the league has seemingly grown by leaps and bounds with new partners and programming — there is the presumption this would be reflected in talent," Bradish told CBC News.

"And now with rival leagues, society is aware that it is possible to better compensate these athletes. So the economics do not appear to add up when looking at the business model of salaries."

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People have been influenced by reports about increasing viewership numbers, says Michele Donnelly, an associate professor of sport management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

"This has made the landscape for high-performance and professional women athletes seem more lucrative than it actually is," she said.

Why the pay discrepancy?

Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 women's basketball league, founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, just completed its inaugural season. Players had an average salary of more than $220,000 US — the highest average salary for players of any professional women's sports league and close to the maximum base salary in the WNBA, according to The Associated Press.

The Sports Economist website says that the league "offers a new paradigm for how women's basketball can thrive financially," has a high-profile primetime spot on TNT Sports, and generates revenue through its 3-on-3 games and with "fan-centric" engagement.

It also has some big backers, with millions of dollars in investments from U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, among others.

But for many people, says Bradish, the shock over WNBA salaries comes from comparing them to the NBA, where starting salaries are in the millions.

Many players supplement their incomes playing overseas during the off-season, an issue recently highlighted when WNBA player Brittney Griner was detained in Russia on drug-related charges that ended with a prisoner swap. She joined Unrivaled last year.

Brittney Griner practises on Jan.16, in Medley, Fla. Griner has played with Phoenix Mercury since being drafted in 2013. (Marta Lavandier/The Associated Press)

"Being paid an appropriate salary to be a full-time professional athlete is something that is still needed in professional women's sport," said Donnelly.

Still, she cautioned, although some salaries in men's professional sports are "astronomically high," that's not the norm for athletes in those leagues. And, the highest-earning male athletes typically earn far more from their sponsorships and endorsements than they do from their salaries or winnings, she added.

WNBA contract negotiations coming

The WNBA is a young league, with its first season in 1997, and doesn't have decades of contract negotiations behind it like the NBA does. It also has a history of under-investment, and with less sway and worse outcomes in media rights deals.

On top of that, WNBA players get a much smaller share of the league's overall revenue than their NBA counterparts, although the current collective bargaining agreement expires next season. Talks between the league and players' union are ongoing, and salaries are expected to grow.

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Players have indicated there could be a lockout if their salary demands aren't meet. Bradish says she's hopeful that salaries will catch up, and better business modelling for the compensation of women's athletes will prevail.

"No doubt these women, through advocacy and collective bargaining, will well-represent themselves at the compensation table," she said.

But the salary discrepancies extend beyond basketball. Players in the Professional Women's Hockey League, for instance, can earn as little as $35,000 US per year. And last month, a FIFA report on women's soccer found that the average salary for top-tier teams was $24,030 US globally, less than a living wage in many places.

And despite 2024 seeing a surge of viral female athletes, such as U.S. rugby player Ilona Maher, and gymnast Simone Biles's Olympic comeback, not one woman made the top 100 list of highest-paid athletes worldwide last year.

Soccer's Cristiano Ronaldo topped that list, with a total income of $260 million US in 2024, according to Sportico.

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