In October this year, the WNBA players opted out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The current CBA enacted in 2020 will now end next year instead of 2027, and the major reason behind it was athletes unsatisfied with their salaries. According to WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson, the “league’s hard salary cap as one of their biggest negotiating priorities,” and hence there are calls to review the WNBA player salaries which stand too less when combined and compared with one of the biggest NBA stars LeBron James.

Taking in the salaries from Spotrac, the WNBA players had a cumulative salary of $16,387,038 this season, whereas James alone made $128,700,000. This means the W players just get paid 12.73% of James’ income this year, which is a little disappointing.

WNBA players had a cumulative salary of $16,387,038

According to Sportac, the highest earners of this W season were Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, and Kahleah Copper. While Ogunbowale signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Wings worth $725,952 that will extend this 2025, Loyd signed a 2-year deal with the Seattle Storm worth $491,016 in 2024. Meanwhile, Copper has a base salary of $245,059 with the Phoenix Mercury. All three have a salary cap of $241,984.

Meanwhile, the 3x WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson earned around $200,000, whereas the ROTY Caitlin Clark could only make $76,535. In total, the salaries of the 145 players, with the lowest being that of Minnesota Lynx’s Olivia Epoupa ($635), stand at $16,387,038. And it is this salary cap, as mentioned before, that has propelled the W starts to take a stand for themselves and demand a new CBA.

However, things are going to improve since the new CBA has come with a new media rights agreement with Disney, NBC, and Amazon of $76 billion over 11 years. This will certainly reduce the losses made by the W (around $40 million this year). That could get management to increase the salaries of the players as per the new CBA. But as of now, it doesn’t take away the fact that their salaries are only 12.73% of King James.

LeBron James had an exorbitant $128,700,000 earnings this year

James signed a 2-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers worth $104 million in July. To top that, towards the end of his career, he became the first player to cross 40,000 career points in July and also was the official flag bearer for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. That shows that despite calls for retirement, James is still maintaining his brand well, which has got him big bucks on and off the court.

He was the first NBA star to be named on the Forbes’ billionaire list in 2022 and has partnered with big brands such as DraftKings, Fanatics, and Hennessy, also investing in PGA tours, the golf’s new commercial strategy. On the other hand, adding to his income, his media company produced docuseries Uninterrupted: The Real Stories of Basketball and  Starting 5, bringing him earnings from different sectors.

His talk show The Shop launched its men’s grooming line at Walmart, which again significantly added to his wealth. Overall, the Lakers star made $48.7 million on the court and $80 million off the court. The 39-year-old’s earnings amount to a humongous $128,700,000. Hopefully, with the new CBA, the W stars will also earn better, and maybe with the growing brand of the league, in the years to come, even Clark and Wilson will be as wealthy stars as James.