How the WNBA stacks up against NWSL, PWHL, and other pro leagues after new CBA

Basketball

WNBA vs. NBA (2026)

Entering its 30th season, the WNBA is the oldest active women’s pro league in the country, so it tracks that it now has a robust CBA to match.

Just a year ago, Wilson, a four-time WNBA MVP, had a base annual salary ($200,000) that was less than half what her boyfriend, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, made in a single NBA game (roughly $425,000).

Now, the salary cap has increased by $5.5 million, with minimum salaries jumping to around $300,000. Those figures will increase over the seven-year lifespan of the deal, with the supermax salary rising to $2 million as league revenue increases. Although not every league discloses specifics, based on estimates, the new salary structure makes WNBA players the highest-earning women’s pro athletes in a team sport by a long shot.

Other CBA highlights include a comprehensive parental leave package, protections for pregnant players, 20 percent gross revenue sharing, mandatory 12-person rosters, housing stipends for certain athletes and higher bonuses for awards and honors.

Still, in terms of salaries, WNBA paychecks remain a drop in the bucket compared to men’s leagues.

The NBA has a soft salary cap that starts at $154.6 million, while the league’s highest-paid player, Jayson Tatum, will receive an annual average of $62.8 million over the life of his current five-year contract. The supermax salary for a WNBA player ($1.4 million) doesn’t even match the minimum salary for a second-year NBA player ($2.05 million), per Spotrac.

There is a possibility that somewhere down the line, the main women’s pro league could be autonomous of the NBA. The formation of player-owned leagues like Unrivaled, which offered players upwards of $220,000 for an eight-week season, offers a glimpse into what the finances of an independent league could look like.

Soccer

NWSL vs. MLS (2026)

*The NWSLPA does not disclose all the details of the CBA, including average and maximum salaries.

NWSL players are guaranteed a salary floor of $50,500, while some of the league’s top talent have contracts worth over an estimated $500,000 annually. The Washington Spirit’s Trinity Rodman is the league’s top-paid player at around $2 million, thanks to the recently introduced High Impact Player rule that allows teams to spend $1 million over the base salary cap of $3.7 million on a star player (or players).

The NWSL’s CBA is the most liberal in terms of player movement and agency. The league’s most recent CBA, signed in 2024, ended the NWSL draft and expansion drafts, giving players unrestricted free agency once their contracts expire. Players must give their consent before being traded and can negotiate directly with teams during free agency. The structure is unparalleled in the United States, but is standard in international soccer — the Women’s Super League in Europe guarantees an even higher minimum wage for its veteran players (about $54,000 per year).

Contracts are also fully guaranteed, and the CBA established revenue sharing.

The MLS, which operates independent of the NWSL, will have a salary cap of $7.1 million in 2027 and currently has minimum base salaries of $88,025 for reserve players and $113,400 for senior players, respectively. Lionel Messi of Inter Miami is the highest-paid MLS player with a $12 million annual salary, but only one other player in the league earns an eight-figure salary, according to Capology. Equal pay efforts from the U.S. women’s national team dating back to 2014 may be to thank for the MLS and NWSL having the smallest gender pay gap in the same sport. The U.S. women’s national team’s success in international tournaments has also helped.

Hockey

PWHL vs. NHL (2026)

At least six players per PWHL team must make $80,000 annually, and nine players across the league are reportedly making closer to $100,000. Emily Clark of the Ottawa Charge is the league’s highest-paid player with an unspecified six-figure salary over $100,000. Per the CBA, Walter Cup winners take home $63,250 to split among the players, and winners of the All-Star Game get $1,500 per player. Bonuses for awards like MVP and Rookie of the Year are $5,000 and $4,000, respectively, right about where the NWSL was with bonuses before it renegotiated its CBA in 2024.

The PWHL’s salary waterline is similar to where the WNBA and NWSL were a few years ago, and there is plenty of hunger for women’s hockey from fans: The league is poised to launch up to four expansion teams by next season. But the league’s CBA doesn’t expire until 2031, meaning players will remain underpaid — the league minimum salary is under $40,000 and only increases 3 percent each year — until they can renegotiate.

Compared to other men’s pro leagues, the NHL and MLS have some of the lower-salaried players. But the NHL’s salary cap is rising sharply, and the aforementioned surge in popularity for men’s and women’s hockey in the post-double-Olympic-gold era means plenty of new brand deals to be struck. Still, the Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov makes a league-high $17 million a year with a contract valued at $136 million over eight years. PWHL players have yet to crack seven figures.

Baseball

WPBL vs. MLB (2026)

A total of 600 athletes representing over 10 countries attended the brand-new Women’s Professional Baseball League tryouts at Nationals Park last summer, with about 60 roster spots to fill. The WPBL doesn’t have a players’ association yet, much less a CBA. As such, the pay isn’t much: Each of the league’s four teams’ salary caps sits at just $95,000 for the inaugural seven-week season, which shakes out to about $6,333 per player. Still, that comes down to more per week than what No. 1 pick Kelsie Whitmore was likely making in a month of pitching men’s indie ball.

Meanwhile, New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto, who currently boasts the MLB’s largest contract in total dollars, makes about $314,000 per game.

The WPBL is one-of-one, but it’s not the country’s first women’s baseball league. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943 as a wartime hobby by MLB owners to prevent a decline in baseball fervor while men (including MLB players) were off fighting overseas. As depicted in the 1992 blockbuster “A League of Their Own,” players were required to practice ladylike etiquette, wear lipstick at all times, and suit up in dresses for games.

The MLB has a storied history of labor negotiations that stands out among men’s leagues, with over 400 days of combined labor stoppages on nine separate occasions of strikes or lockouts over 50 years (and, famously, the cancellation of the 1994 World Series). There are no salary caps or max salaries in MLB, although there is a “competitive balance tax” that taxes teams that exceed a certain salary threshold ($241 million in 2025). Still, paychecks and salary structures vary wildly, with a significant intraleague pay gap between the league’s highest and lowest earners. Team spending is also lopsided: As of 2025, payroll disparity was at a record high. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ payroll (approx. $350 million) was more than five times that of the lowest-spending team, the Miami Marlins ($67.8 million), in 2025.

Average MLB salaries peaked this year as well, according to AP.

Football

NFL (2026)

*Calculated based on Spotrac’s 2025 data for average salaries on all signed contracts across positions.

Why include a football section if there’s no women’s equivalent? Because there may soon be — and because it’s worth noting the salaries in one of the biggest American sports leagues. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has the largest contract in the NFL in terms of average annual value at $60 million, with 10 other players signed to deals with average annual values over $50 million.

Last fall, the NFL announced plans to launch men’s and women’s flag football leagues by 2028, before the sport’s Olympic debut that summer. A new women’s flag football conference would join the likes of other women’s leagues that are springing up, like League One Volleyball, Major League Volleyball and the Women’s Lacrosse League. There is a clear craving for more representation in the women’s sports world, and new opportunities are starting to show because of it.

The new flag football league, like the PWHL and WPBL, can learn from leagues before it and build off their success. The WNBA emphasized that asking for more is no longer asking too much.

“Too often, women have been told to be grateful for the opportunity,” the WNBA Players’ Association said in a statement after the new CBA had been struck. “This union sees it differently. It is about knowing our worth and having the courage to demand more, not just for ourselves, but for those coming next.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

WNBA, NWSL, Sports Business, Women's Hockey

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