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Five months after five WNBA stars were honored as *Glamour* Women of the Year for their advocacy around fair compensation, the league and its players have reached a landmark agreement. On March 20, the WNBA and the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) announced the terms of a tentative seven-year collective bargaining agreement—a deal that promises to reshape the economic landscape of women's professional sports.
The agreement, verbally finalized earlier in the week, follows months of negotiations that extended well past the original October 31 deadline. Players held firm in their demand for a meaningful share of the league's rapidly growing revenue, alongside broader improvements to salaries, benefits, and workplace protections.
A Billion-Dollar Commitment to Players
At the heart of the new CBA is a groundbreaking revenue-sharing structure—the first of its kind in women's professional sports. Projected to deliver over $1 billion in player salaries and benefits across the life of the agreement, the model features "unlimited upside" for athletes as the WNBA continues its expansion.
Salary caps are set to rise dramatically: maximum player salaries will climb from $1.4 million in 2026 to more than $2.4 million by 2032. For the first time in league history, top-tier talent will be eligible for multi-million-dollar contracts.
"We've always believed that as this league grows, the players who power it must grow with it," said WNBPA President and 10-time All-Star Nneka Ogwumike. "We love this game enough to push for what it can become—not just for ourselves, but for those who built this league and those who will carry it forward."
Rookie Salaries Get a Major Boost
The deal also includes substantial increases to rookie-scale compensation, with adjustments applied retroactively to players currently on rookie contracts. According to ESPN reporter Alexa Philippou, Caitlin Clark's annual salary is expected to rise to approximately $530,000 in 2026—a significant jump from her reported $78,066 earnings in 2025.
This adjustment addresses concerns raised last fall by WNBPA Vice President and *Glamour* Woman of the Year Napheesa Collier, who called Clark's original contract "insane" given the hundreds of millions in revenue the rookie phenom has helped generate. "We are being so grossly almost taken advantage of, and it should be illegal," Collier said at the time.
Standing Firm for the Future
The tentative agreement now moves to ratification votes by both the players and the WNBA Board of Governors. For Collier and her fellow advocates, the deal represents more than immediate financial gains—it's about securing long-term equity for the sport.
"If we give in, we're not only doing a disservice to us, we're doing a disservice to where we have gotten in women's sports," Collier previously told *Glamour*. "We really have no choice but to stand strong again, not just for the present, but for the future of our league too."
She added: "We are standing really firm on what we want, and we're not going to give in before we get it."
If ratified, this CBA will mark a defining moment—not only for the WNBA, but for the broader movement toward economic justice in women's athletics. The five athletes honored by *Glamour* in October didn't just fight for themselves; they helped build a framework where future generations of players can thrive as the league they elevated continues to soar.