The 21 Highest-Paid WNBA Players — And What They Were Making Five Years Ago

At long last, WNBA players are making bank. Thanks to the 2026 collective bargaining agreement, which will extend through 2032, players can now earn a one-year supermax salary of $1.4 million with a regular annual max of $1.19 million. These represent percentages of a $7 million team salary cap, which is almost five items higher than the $1.3 million cap under the 2020 CBA. But that’s a lot of numbers to say that the earning power of this predominantly Black and largely queer league is expanding dramatically, along with its popularity among viewers.Our summer 2026 cover stars, the StudBudz —a viral content creating duo composed of Minnesota Lynx player Courtney Williams and the Seattle Storm’s Natisha Hiedeman— recently opened up about the impact of the new CBA. “It changed my life. My mama, she’s able to retire now,” Williams told Them, with Hiedeman adding, “In the past, [my goals] maybe seemed far-fetched but now it’s like, no I could do that.”There’s no overstating the impact of this dramatic infusion of wealth into a league that has long dealt with suboptimal travel conditions, low salaries, and a reliance on offseason play overseas to make ends meet. After all, the previous minimum salary for a WNBA player was a mere $66,000. These pay increases have huge ripple effects — on the players and their families, on the philanthropic causes they support, and on the culture writ large.To paint a picture, Them used data from Her Hoop Stats to compare the salaries of the 20 highest-paid WNBA players in the 2026 season with what they were earning five years ago, in 2021. Some players saw over 2,000% increases in their pay over this time period — and this doesn’t include brand deals and other sponsorship opportunities that can augment a player’s earning potential. One quick note: Shakira Austin’s and Gabby Williams’ current salaries are compared to their 2022 earnings: Austin was not drafted in 2022, and Williams did not play in the 2021