The WNBA’s 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement: A Case Study in the Promise of Industrial Democracy

by Emmy Blane, Blog Citations Editor, University of Cincinnati Law Review Vol. 95

“Players understand their worth; they understand their value. That’s what we want. It’s what we deserve.”¹ –– WNBA Player’s Association President Nneka Ogwumike

I. Introduction

In 2025, the number of unionized workers relative to the total workforce reached an all-time low since Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (“the Act”) which gave private-sector employees the right to unionize without employer retaliation.² Meanwhile, the Women’s National Basketball Association (“WNBA”) and the WNBA players’ union were engaged in intense collective bargaining, culminating in a transformational collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) that reshaped the economic relationship between the league and its players.³

This Post argues that the WNBA’s CBA should serve as a blueprint for unions striving for compensation and working conditions that match employees’ worth. Part II highlights the decline in union participation in the United States and traces the bargaining process that produced the terms of the WNBA’s new CBA. Part III explains how the WNBA’s CBA demonstrates the power of collective bargaining to reshape compensation and working conditions for employees beyond professional sports. Part III then argues that the CBA represents a significant milestone in the economic growth of women’s sports. Finally, Part IV summarizes the downward trends in union density and emphasizes that the WNBA’s CBA should serve as a blueprint for unions moving forward, especially for other women’s sports leagues.

II. Background

A. National Labor Relations Act

In 1935, Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act.⁴ Specifically, the Act declared that it was the policy of the United States to protect “the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.”⁵ This freedom for employees to unionize and bargain with management is a concept known as industrial democracy.⁶

B. Union Density Decline

The number of unionized workers relative to the total labor force, referred to as “union density,” has been declining for decades in the United States.⁷ In 1945, ten years after Congress passed the Act, union density peaked at 34.2% with nearly 15 million union members.⁸ By the early 1980s, union density had declined to approximately 20% with 17.7 million members.⁹ Finally, fast forward to 2025 in which the union density fell to 10% with only 14.7 million members.¹⁰ The decline of private-sector union density is drastic: in 2025, union density for private-sector workers covered by the Act dropped to 5.9%, compared to a public-sector union density of 32.9% in the same year.¹¹ Some scholars have noticed that as union rates have declined, compensation received by hourly workers has remained fairly flat, even as their hourly production has increased.¹² Notably, those scholars found that these trends correlate with wealth becoming more concentrated in the highest income earners.¹³

C. The WNBA’s Bargaining Process and Current CBA

Meanwhile, as union density in the United States hit a record low, the WNBA and its players’ union––the Women’s National Basketball Players Association––were engaged in CBA negotiations.¹⁴ On March 20, 2026, the WNBA and the Players Association reached an agreement on a new CBA––the terms of which represented “one of the most transformational labor agreements ever reached in the history of major professional sports.”¹⁵

Under the prior CBA, the league’s minimum salary was $57,000, while the average cash compensation was around $130,000, which included base salary plus performance bonuses and marketing deals.¹⁶ Although the WNBA achieved record highs in viewership, attendance, and merchandise sales during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, that revenue was not tied to players’ salaries, meaning players did not directly share in the revenue they generated.¹⁷

Dr. Claudia Goldin, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, explained that comparing the data between WNBA and National Basketball Association (“NBA”) broadcasting, attendance, and viewership numbers in 2025 revealed that the average WNBA salary should be approximately one quarter to one third of the average NBA salary to achieve pay equity.¹⁸ However, the average WNBA salary was a mere one eightieth of the average NBA salary in 2025.¹⁹ Why? Dr. Goldin’s diagnosis was simple: “The most likely explanation is that the W.N.B.A. is not receiving the full value it contributes to the combined N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. enterprise revenue…management is not giving the W.N.B.A. enough credit for the attention and money its players attract.”²⁰

Even amid the WNBA’s unprecedented growth, many of its players continued to play professionally overseas during the offseason to supplement their WNBA salary and make a sustainable living.²¹ In 2023, two WNBA players even co-founded a new basketball league that offered players an alternative to playing overseas while earning salaries that substantially exceeded their WNBA compensation––strengthening the Players Association’s bargaining power during CBA negotiations.²²

Perhaps the most publicized demonstration of the players’ push for a fair revenue sharing model occurred during the nationally-televised 2025 WNBA All-Star game.²³ Before and after the game, every All-Star wore shirts bearing the message “Pay Us What You Owe Us,” and a sold-out crowd erupted in chants of “Pay them!” as the WNBA Commissioner presented the game’s Most Valuable Player with her trophy.²⁴ After months without reaching an agreement and extending the negotiation deadline multiple times, the Players Association voted to authorize its executive committee to call for a strike when necessary, signaling “the players’ confidence in their leadership and their unwavering solidarity against ongoing efforts to divide, conquer, and undervalue them.”²⁵ The negotiations spanned seventeen months, culminating in one hundred hours of negotiations in the final eight days before the parties ultimately reached an agreement nearly a month before players reported to training camp for the 2026 WNBA season.²⁶

Representing the largest increase to a league’s salary cap in United States’ professional sports history, the new CBA raised the salary cap per team from $1.5 million in 2025 to $7 million in 2026––an increase of nearly 400%.²⁷ The CBA also features the first comprehensive revenue sharing model in women’s professional sports, which is expected to pay out over $1 billion in players’ salaries and benefits over the seven-year life of the CBA.²⁸ Notably, players signed to the league’s minimum contract under the new CBA will enjoy a higher salary than those who were signed to the maximum contract under the prior CBA.²⁹

The new CBA also strengthens players’ benefits and protections beyond its significant salary improvements.³⁰ While the WNBA aimed to phase out league-provided housing in the new CBA, the Players Association remained firm on that issue and secured league-provided housing for all players through 2028 and for those making under $500,000 in 2029 and 2030.³¹ Additionally, the new CBA contains landmark family-planning benefits: teams now must obtain pregnant players’ consent before trading them, non-birthing partners are eligible for paid leave, and young children are allowed to travel with their parents on team trips.³²

As a result of collective bargaining, the Players Association and WNBA agreed on compensation that matches players’ worth and benefits that improve working conditions, regardless of a player’s level of performance or stardom.³³

III. Discussion

Part III of this Post argues that the WNBA’s CBA can serve as a case study in the importance of collective bargaining, not just in women’s sports, but also in traditional workplaces. While union density is at an all-time low in the United States since Congress passed the Act,³⁴ the Players Association illustrated the power of leveraging employee production³⁵ to secure fair compensation for workers’ proven value––a concept that transcends sports and can be applied to other industries.

A. The WNBA’s CBA as a Model for Workers Beyond Professional Sports

The 2026 WNBA CBA demonstrates the importance of collective bargaining beyond wages. For example, while assurance that pregnant players cannot be traded without their consent is a concept unique to professional sports, the underlying issue is prevalent in traditional workplaces.³⁶ The perception that pregnancy and motherhood make women less productive in the workplace is pervasive, and often results in reassignments, fewer opportunities for promotion, or being taken less seriously than male colleagues.³⁷ The Players Association showed that collective bargaining can be a powerful tool to address structural inequalities in the workplace and to secure benefits additional to federally mandated protections against employment discrimination.³⁸

Additionally, the 2026 WNBA CBA showcases collective bargaining as an instrument to protect all levels of workers, not only the higher-ups and most visible employees. The CBA not only reflects this notion through salary increases for rookies and players signed to minimum contracts, but also through guaranteeing housing, healthcare, travel, retirement, and family-planning benefits for all players regardless of status or performance.³⁹ In traditional workplaces, this analogizes to increasing pay and providing stronger protections for workers in lower-wage jobs.

Finally, the Players Association’s success in securing a revenue sharing model that directly compensates players for the revenue they generate demonstrates how collective bargaining can serve as a mechanism for addressing long-standing wage inequality within a specific industry or demographic. The players established the precedent moving forward, not only for other women’s sports leagues and future WNBA players, but for minority workers across the country who experience historic wage inequality.

B. The WNBA’s CBA as a Model for Professional Women’s Sports Leagues

Other women’s sports leagues, in particular, should look to the WNBA as a model for tying player compensation to the revenue athletes generate and transforming family and healthcare policies into enforceable contractual rights.⁴⁰ Salary increases and the revenue sharing model in the new CBA put to rest the spurious argument that women athletes are not paid high salaries because they do not produce revenue.⁴¹ Moving forward, the WNBA CBA provides a concrete model for meaningfully sharing revenue with women athletes, establishing the economic value of women’s sports, and eliminating the proposition that women must continually prove their value before they are taken seriously at the bargaining table. Rather, for the WNBA specifically, the future challenge will be ensuring that player compensation maintains pace with the league’s growing revenue and increased team valuations so that players continue to share meaningfully in the economic growth they generate.⁴²

The Players Association’s President Nneka Ogwumike stated during the CBA negotiations, “[W]e are in a position now where, because there is so much growth, we should be making a meaningful share of that while still understanding that we can grow the business.”⁴³ In other words, the 2026 CBA is a starting point to address wage inequalities, but as the league’s value continues to grow, the current CBA should not be viewed as a permanent resolution.⁴⁴ Illustrating the magnitude of the CBA’s broader social significance, the National Civil Rights Museum recognized Nneka Ogwumike as a Freedom Award honoree for advancing the rights of women.⁴⁵ In this way, collective bargaining achievements can inspire movements across industries and represent broader social change.

IV. Conclusion

The WNBA’s bargaining process culminating in its 2026 CBA offers a compelling case study in the importance of collective bargaining.⁴⁶ After seventeen months of negotiations, the WNBA players’ union ultimately established a powerful precedent for women’s sports leagues and workers seeking a greater share of the economic value they generate.⁴⁷

Cover Photo by Tom Briskey on Unsplash

Author

Emmy Blane

References

1
Sean Gregory, Nneka Ogwumike Wants to See More WNBA Millionaires, Time (Jan. 27, 2026), https://time.com/collections/closers-2026/7353454/nneka-ogwumike/ [https://perma.cc/KWC3-84JZ] (citation modified). ↩︎
2
U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Union Members – 2025, USDL-26-0229 (Feb. 18, 2026), https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf; National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151 (1935). ↩︎
3
Alexa Philippou & Ramona Shelburne, WNBA CBA: Inside the meetings that shaped the league’s future, ESPN (May 7, 2026), https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/48688618/wnba-cba-2026-collective-bargaining-agreement-negotiations-meetings-how-deal-got-done [https://perma.cc/6CJ9-JGGE] (“After 17 months of public squabbling…two dozen or so lawyers, staffers and players spent eight marathon days in March solving the WNBA’s version of a seemingly unsolvable problem by hammering out the 50 or so issues that divided them to reach what both sides regard as a landmark collective bargaining agreement.”). ↩︎
4
National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169 (1935). ↩︎
5
Id. at § 151 (establishing the “Findings and Policies” of the Act). ↩︎
6
See Harris & Slater et al., Modern Labor Law in the Private and Public Sectors: Cases and Materials at 11, 42 (3d. ed. 2021); see also Charles Craver, Why Labor Unions Must (and Can) Survive, 1 U. Pa. J. Lab. and Emp. L. 15, 23 (1998) (quoting Senator Robert Wagner’s remarks after the Act’s passage). ↩︎
7
Harris & Slater, supra note 6 at 46. ↩︎
8
Paul D. Romero & Julie M. Whittaker, Cong. Rsch. Serv., R47596, A Brief Examination of Union Membership Data (2023). ↩︎
9
Id.; see also Harris & Slater, supra note 6 at 46. ↩︎
10
U.S. Dep’t of Labor, supra note 2. ↩︎
11
Id. ↩︎
12
Harris & Slater, supra note 6 at 46. ↩︎
13
Id. at 45-46. ↩︎
14
Philippou & Shelburne, supra note 3. ↩︎
15
WNBA, WNBA And WNBPA Reach Tentative Deal on Historic Collective Bargaining Agreement (Mar. 20, 2026), https://www.wnba.com/news/wnba-wnbpa-tentative-cba-deal-2026 [https://perma.cc/QGZ4-KCYJ]. ↩︎
16
Mechelle Voepel, New WNBA CBA to include salary bump, other cash compensation increases, ESPN (Jan. 14, 2020), https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/28480768/new-wnba-cba-include-salary-bump-other-cash-compensation-increases [https://perma.cc/Q85B-LWCJ] (discussing terms of 2020 CBA). ↩︎
17
WNBA, WNBA Delivers Record-Setting 2024 Season (Sep. 27, 2024), https://www.wnba.com/news/wnba-delivers-record-setting-2024-season [https://perma.cc/VG6S-4MFL]; Andrew McCarty, WNBA Reacts to Historic Ratings Announcement After 2025 Season, Yahoo! Sports (Oct. 16, 2025), https://sports.yahoo.com/article/wnba-reacts-historic-ratings-announcement-140859834.html [https://perma.cc/E9DE-C56J]; Kristen Wong, WNBA’s New CBA Agreement: Three Key Points to Know, Including Pay Increases, Sports illustrated (Mar. 18, 2026), https://www.si.com/wnba/new-cba-agreement-three-key-points-to-know-including-pay-increases [https://perma.cc/53SZ-NQDV] (“While the previous CBA from 2020 also featured a revenue-sharing system that let players take home a piece of the pie, it required revenue to exceed a certain annual target, after which 50% of the excess was shared with the players.”). ↩︎
18
Bio for Claudia Goldin, Harv. Univ., https://goldin.scholars.harvard.edu/biocv [https://perma.cc/YJ25-TSJ9] (last visited Sep. 19, 2026); Claudia Goldin, How Underpaid Are W.N.B.A. Players? It’s Embarrassing., N.Y. Times (June 6, 2025), ↩︎
19
Goldin, supra note 18. ↩︎
20
Id. ↩︎
21
Jim Caple, For WNBA stars who play overseas, positives outweigh negatives, ESPN (Jan. 25, 2017), https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/18544588/for-wnba-stars-play-overseas-positives-outweigh-negatives [https://perma.cc/37XG-W6VA] (“Foreign teams often pay more than WNBA teams. Some top players can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars abroad — Diana Taurasi agreed to sit out the 2015 WNBA season to earn around $1.5 million during Russia’s 2015-16 season — but the WNBA maximum salary was $111,500 in 2016 and the average was around $75,000.”). ↩︎
22
Angelina Minaya, Unrivaled: The league that is redefining the WNBA offseason, Case W. Rsrv. Observer (Feb. 20, 2026), https://observer.case.edu/unrivaled-the-league-that-is-redefining-the-wnba-offseason/ [https://perma.cc/MYF4-ZHUL]; see also Unrivaled, Unrivaled Closes Oversubscribed Series B Investment Round Headlined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Increasing League Valuation to $340 Million (Sep. 8, 2025), https://www.unrivaled.basketball/news/unrivaled-closes-oversubscribed-series-b-investment-round-headlined-by-bessemer-venture-partners-increasing-league-valuation-to-340-million-3w2xqm3rmszj [https://perma.cc/5EDA-FZQS]. ↩︎
23
Kendra Andrews & Alexa Philippou, ‘United’ WNBA All-Stars wear ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’ shirts, ESPN, (July 19, 2025), https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/45778770/wnba-all-stars-wear-pay-us-owe-us-warmup-shirts [https://perma.cc/GET3-T5H8]. ↩︎
24
Id. ↩︎
25
Sabreena Merchant & Ben Pickman, WNBPA authorizes executive committee to call for strike ‘when necessary’ amid CBA talks, The Athletic (Dec. 18, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6900593/2025/12/18/wnba-players-association-strike-authorization/ [https://perma.cc/4Q9Y-5J84] (quoting the Players Association’s statement). ↩︎
26
Seerat Sohi, The WNBA Players Didn’t Just Get Paid––They Took Control, The Ringer (Mar. 19, 2026), https://www.theringer.com/2026/03/19/wnba/wnba-cba-players-salary-agreement-details [https://perma.cc/6QT2-XQ9S] (“After over 100 hours of productive back-and-forth negotiations over eight days, the two sides finally shook hands, as one era of WNBA history gave way to another.”); WNBA, Key Dates: 2026 WNBA Season, https://www.wnba.com/keydates [https://perma.cc/35P9-Y3WA] (stating that training camp began on April 19). ↩︎
27
WNBA, supra note 15. ↩︎
28
Id. ↩︎
29
Sabreena Merchant, Who are the top WNBA free agents? Get ready for a wild offseason after a new CBA deal, The Athletic (Mar. 19, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7130255/2026/03/19/wnba-free-agents-offseason-cba/ [https://perma.cc/N3US-WVA9] (“The 2026 minimum salary of approximately $300,000 will exceed the 2025 maximum, and the highest-paid players (a supermax salary of $1.4 million) could make more than five times the previous supermax.”). ↩︎
30
WNBA, supra note 15. ↩︎
31
Jack Maloney, WNBA, players union announce details of historic CBA: Everything we know about salaries, housing and more, CBS Sports (Mar. 25 2026), https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/wnba-cba-news-deal-details-salaries-explainer/ [https://perma.cc/W8Y9-RWR2]. ↩︎
32
Michael Voepel, WNBA’s CBA: 10 biggest wins from new agreement, ESPN (Mar. 26, 2026), https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/48316853/wnba-cba-collective-bargaining-agreement-2026-biggest-wins [https://perma.cc/ZTN8-J7WN]. ↩︎
33
Id.; Mahoney, supra note 31; WNBA, supra note 15. ↩︎
34
U.S. Dep’t of Labor, supra note 2 (discussing union density decline). ↩︎
35
Rohit De, ‘Changing Very Rapidly’ – WNBA Owner Predicts Women’s Sports Will Match Men’s Team Valuations, Yahoo! Sports (Sep. 15, 2026), https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/changing-very-rapidly-wnba-owner-162350801.html [https://perma.cc/ZL4E-YA6M] (explaining that WNBA viewership is comparable to men’s professional leagues in 2026); see also Brian Hamilton, Inside the Golden State Valkyries’ billion-dollar success that’s setting a new WNBA bar, The Athletic (Aug. 4, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7489414/2026/08/04/golden-state-valkyries-wnba-billion-dollar-franchise / [https://perma.cc/CX2W-3Q6D] (“[I]n its most recent study of the league’s franchise valuations, CNBC appraised the Valkyries at $1 billion.”) (citation modified). ↩︎
36
Shalene Gupta, How the ‘mommy track’ derails working women—and it’s only gotten worse, Fast Co. (Aug. 18, 2026), https://www.fastcompany.com/91592058/how-the-mommy-track-derails-working-women-and-its-only-gotten-worse [https://perma.cc/2FNP-56ZW] (discussing motherhood penalties in the workplace). ↩︎
37
Id. ↩︎
38
AAUW, The Motherhood Penalty, https://www.aauw.org/issues/economic-security/motherhood/ [https://perma.cc/YA39-WSGS] (last visited Sep. 19, 2026) (“Despite federal protections, pregnant women still face discrimination in the workplace.”) ↩︎
39
WNBA, supra note 15 (”All existing rookie-scale contracts will also be adjusted upward, delivering meaningful pay increases for players at every stage of their careers. The deal includes significant investments in the overall player experience…substantial enhancements for retirees and retirement planning, with expanded team contributions to player 401(k) accounts, enhanced benefits for players with children or who are family planning, and recognition payments for WNBA veterans and retired players based on years of service.”) ↩︎
40
Divya Navani, From Bargaining to Breakthrough: How the WNBA’s New Collective Bargaining Agreement Rewrites the Rules for Women’s Sports, 80 U. Mia. L. Rev. (Apr. 19, 2026), https://lawreview.law.miami.edu/from-bargaining-to-breakthrough-how-the-wnbas-new-collective-bargaining-agreement-rewrites-the-rules-for-womens-sports/ [https://perma.cc/48NA-LFAQ] (“As collective bargaining agreements across women’s professional sports near expiration, the WNBA’s model offers a legally significant blueprint: one that ties compensation to revenue, treats family-related benefits as core working conditions, and converts previously discretionary policies into enforceable contractual rights.”). ↩︎
41
See generally Jacob Mox, Everything to know about the WNBA revenue sharing debate, Title IX Sports (Aug. 1, 2025), https://www.theixsports.com/features/everything-to-know-about-the-wnba-revenue-sharing-debate/ [https://perma.cc/7YQL-TH6W]. ↩︎
42
Brenna Zeuhlke, WNBA’s Historic CBA: A Delayed Realization of the Value of Women’s Sports, Minn. J. L. Ineq. 1, 5 (2026), https://journals.law.umn.edu/sites/journals.law.umn.edu/files/wp/lawineq-uploads/2026/04/WNBAs-Historic-CBA-A-Delayed-Realization-of-the-Value-of-Womens-Sports-Zuehlke.pdf [https://perma.cc/DM5B-AERT]. ↩︎
43
Katie Barnes, WNBA CBA Q&A: Nneka Ogwumike, Napheesa Collier on ‘standstill’, ESPN (Jan. 8, 2026), https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/47555327/wnba-cba-union-leaders-nneka-ogwumike-napheesa-collier-negotiation-standstill [https://perma.cc/KNN3-2FQL] (emphasis added). ↩︎
44
Zeuhlke, supra note 42 at 4. ↩︎
45
Nat’l C.R. Museum, National Civil Rights Museum Announces 35th Freedom Award Honorees (Sep. 3, 2026), https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/03/3356196/0/en/national-civil-rights-museum-announces-35th-freedom-award-honorees.html [https://perma.cc/9MZB-CAV2]. ↩︎
46
U.S. Dep’t of Labor, supra note 2; WNBA, supra note 15. ↩︎
47
WNBA, supra note 15; Philippou & Shelburne, supra note 3. ↩︎