Angel Reese highlights the WNBA’s low base salaries and reveals her rookie contract doesn’t cover her rent in Chicago

The WNBA’s low base salaries are no secret.

A quick Google search would alert anyone interested to the fact that the face of the league – three-time MVP A’ja Wilson – earns an annual base salary of $200,000. At the other end of the league’s salary scale is Sky star Angel Reese, who earned $73,439 in her record-breaking rookie season.

Next year, Reese’s paycheck from the WNBA will increase to $74,909.

This week, Reese called attention to the WNBA’s meager salaries in an Instagram Live video when she shared that revenue from the league doesn’t pay her bills.

“I live beyond my means,” Reese joked as she shared that her WNBA salary isn’t enough to cover her rent, which she said is $8,000 a month.

The purpose of Reese’s social media exchanges may have been to light-heartedly connect with her followers.

“Even hating pays off,” Reese said.

However, Reese’s transparency about her WNBA salary makes it clear what the league’s players need to do to supplement that income.

According to Wilson’s agent Jade-Li English, the two-time WNBA champion’s base salary is her lowest contract salary at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wilson has partnerships with global brands such as Nike, Gatorade and AT&T, to name a few.

While Wilson and Reese’s annual income may not be standard for all players in the WNBA, it is standard for most to supplement their income. Most players have achieved this in the past by playing abroad.

Six-time Olympic champion Diana Taurasi even went so far as to sit out the 2015 season at the request of her former club team UMMC Ekaterinburg. The team paid her more than her WNBA salary — which was just under the league maximum of $107,000 at the time — to take the summer off. The Sky will have at least five players competing overseas this offseason, including rookie Kamilla Cardoso.

A lot has changed in the WNBA over the last 10 years; However, player salaries have remained surprisingly low. In 2020, the WNBA and players’ union ratified a new CBA – effective through the 2027 season – that increased the annual base salary for the league’s highest-paid players from $117,500 to $215,000.

This year, the WNBA’s maximum veteran base salary was estimated at $208,219. The supermax was $241,984.

The WNBPA and the league have until November 1 to opt out of the current CBA, meaning it will expire at the end of the 2025 season. All signs point to the players exiting, considering they are demanding higher salaries and the WNBA just secured a historic media rights deal. In July, the league announced the 11-year deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC. The value is $200 million per year.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed possible upcoming negotiations before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.

“This will be an opportunity to listen to each other and take the league to the next level for generations to come,” Engelbert said. “I’m looking forward to shaping the future of the league and sitting with the players to decide whether they want to leave or not leave.

“I suspect that given the transformation of the league that we’ve worked so hard to build, building this long-term economic model, we’ve already gone back to the players through Charter by increasing playoff bonuses by more than $30 a couple of years ago % increased.” 50%. We will continue to do that and when we are at the negotiating table we will continue to talk about the issues that matter most to the players.”