What will Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and more WNBA stars on rookie contracts now make?
As the WNBA experienced its rocketship growth during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, a strong dissonance emerged between the popularity of college megastars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and how much money they made. The salaries of all WNBA players were too low relative to the growing business of the league, but none more obviously than the new generation of rookies. The new collective bargaining agreement, which the league and players agreed to in principle early Wednesday morning, aims to address player compensation at large.
Unlike the previous CBA, which locked even the league’s best players into their low rookie salaries, the new agreement brings along all players on rookie contracts, including Clark, Bueckers and Reese. Per the CBA term sheet, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft will make a base salary of $500,000 this season, $520,000 in 2027, $572,000 in 2028 and $646,360 in the fourth and final year of her rookie contract.
The rookie scale for the 2025 draftees is reduced by four percent; that means Paige Bueckers (the No. 1 pick in 2025) will make four percent less than the second year of this deal in 2026 (the second year of her rookie contract). That comes out to $499,200.
Bueckers would have made $80,408 in 2026 under the previous CBA. Star player rookie contracts Player 2025 salary 2026 salary 2027 salary 2028 salary 2026 No. 1 pick – $500,000 $520,000 $572,000 Paige Bueckers $78,831 $499,200 $549,120 max contract Caitlin Clark $78,066 $527,155.
20 max contract supermax Angel Reese $74,909 $349,571. 18 $395,015. 27** supermax Aliyah Boston $83,371 max contract supermax supermax **Reese hasn’t been named All-WNBA, so she’s not yet eligible to renegotiate her rookie contract.