The pending WNBA collective bargaining settlement will fast-track the power for gamers on rookie-scale contracts to make most and supermax salaries, sources advised ESPN.
The brand new provision, known as “EPIC,” permits gamers to renegotiate their fourth-year wage and earn the usual max in that 12 months in the event that they had been beforehand named All-WNBA first staff or second staff, or the supermax in the event that they beforehand received MVP.
For instance, 2024 Rookie of the Yr Caitlin Clark — who made $78,066 in 2025 — is poised to see her wage leap to $530,000 in 2026, a supply stated. She may earn the projected max of $1.3 million in 2027 as a earlier All-WNBA participant. She may then signal for a $1.7 million supermax in 2028.
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The brand new provision would even be relevant to youthful star gamers resembling Aliyah Boston, who was All-WNBA in 2024 and is max eligible in 2026, and Paige Bueckers, who was All-WNBA in 2025 and is max eligible in 2028.
Within the earlier settlement, a participant may earn the supermax wage solely following the completion of a four-year rookie-scale contract.
The league and the gamers’ union reached a verbal settlement on the phrases of a brand new CBA early Wednesday. Below the brand new CBA, sources advised ESPN, the wage cap will begin at $7 million (up from $1.5 million in 2025) with the supermax beginning at $1.4 million (was $249,244 in 2025).
The common wage might be about $583,000 ($120,000 in 2025), whereas the minimal wage has 5 tiers primarily based on years of service, starting from $270,000 to $300,000 ($66,079 in 2025), sources advised ESPN, confirming a report from Entrance Workplace Sports activities.
Just a few different particulars of the brand new CBA phrases have emerged.
Sources confirmed earlier experiences that starting in 2027, solely a participant with six or fewer years of service will be cored. The core, which is the WNBA’s equal of the NFL’s franchise tag, was one thing the gamers sought to eradicate solely throughout these negotiations.
Housing may also be supplied for all gamers within the first three years of the deal; after that, will probably be made obtainable just for these making $500,000 or much less for 2029 and 2030. After 2030, housing might be supplied solely to developmental gamers.
Housing emerged as a flash level in negotiations after the league initially didn’t embrace it in its proposals. Groups have supplied housing because the league’s first CBA in 1999.