Pay them what you owe them

WNBA players are demanding a fairer share in their upcoming contract.

(zimmytws/Shutterstock.com)

By Shalise Manza Young

There are two things that should never be in doubt about the players of the WNBA: They are incredibly savvy, and they know how to send a message.

After taking the court for pre-game warmups, the league’s All-Star Game in Indianapolis this summer, the women revealed black shirts with “Pay Us What You Owe Us” in white lettering, with the logo of their union, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, underneath.

It was impossible for commissioner Cathy Englebert and team owners to ignore, and the fans were fully on their side: Not only did a roar of approval ring out inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse when the big screen showed star after star in the shirt as Englebert was presenting Napheesa Collier with the game’s most valuable player trophy, but she was also showered with boos and chants of “Pay them! Pay them!”

The WNBPA opted out of the current five-year contract last October, a year before it was set to expire. That deal included some landmark off-court benefits, specifically around motherhood and pregnancy, and had offered a pay bump for players. That increase raised the league average to $130,000 a year, the first time in the WNBA’s 25-plus year history it was over six figures.

But with an 11-year media rights deal valued at up to $3 billion kicking in next year, players are rightfully asking for much more this time around.

So, they turned to their tried-and-true tactic: The t-shirt.

During their Covid-shortened 2020 season, WNBA players used a shirt to change the course of American history. Kelly Loeffler, a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, had been appointed to Johnny Isakson’s U.S. Senate seat by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018 after Isakson retired for health reasons with two years left in his term.

Loeffler quickly turned full MAGA, telling players to stop being political and saying stuff like “Black lives matter” and aligning herself against LGBTQ rights. It was quite the approach for someone who owned a team in a league that’s 70% Black and 20% queer.

Rather than try to get the WNBA to sanction Loeffler or force her to sell, players took a different tack: with Loeffler on the ballot for the first time, they did their research on her Democrat challengers, meeting twice via Zoom with then-lesser-known candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock.

On Aug. 4, 2020, players wore black shirts that read simply “VOTE WARNOCK.”

Within days, Warnock received over $235,000 in donations from 3,500 new grassroots voters. He went on to defeat Loeffler, giving President Joe Biden a critical 50-50 split in the Senate, with then Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote on a number of important measures, including the Build Back Better Act.

During All-Star weekend this year, 40-plus players, led by WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike of the Seattle Storm, met with league officials for a bargaining session that New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart told ESPN was a “wasted opportunity.” The two sides are reportedly largely on the same page when it comes to family planning and retirement benefits. Unsurprisingly, they aren’t nearly as close on two big things: revenue sharing and salary structure.

On the morning of the game, Ogwumike gathered the 22 all-stars and said the decision to wear the “Pay Us” t-shirts had to be unanimous or they wouldn’t be worn. Given the history of unity among players, at least when it comes to the common good, it was unsurprising that they donned the shirts.

The attention they garnered led to the usual chorus, composed almost entirely of men, starting up their same sad tune; let’s call it the “ballad of the bad-faith bros.” You’re probably familiar with the lyrics: No one watches the WNBA, they don’t deserve the same money as NBA players, without the great white hope Caitlin Clark no one would care about the league, the WNBA loses money.

It’s a crappy song. And—and this will shock you—not based in reality.

Yes, ratings on ESPN went up significantly last year, Clark’s first in the league. But they’re up again this season by another 23% overall, which means people aren’t just tuning in to see the Indiana Fever, who have played almost half of the season without Clark, benched with an injury. League-wide, ticket and merchandise sales are up 26% and 40%, respectively, over 2024. When three-time league MVP A’ja Wilson’s first signature shoe with Nike debuted in May, it sold out online in under five minutes.

Yes, the 28-year-old league as a whole is losing money, but all men’s professional leagues have had their share of ups and downs financially—half of Major League Soccer teams operate at a loss 29 years after the league began play.

But things can’t be that bad: Less than two years after the ownership groups for the Golden State Valkyries, Portland Fire, and Toronto Tempo each paid a $50 million franchise fee, owners for teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia paid $250 million; the Valkyries began play this year, and the other five will by 2030. Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca is trying to buy the Connecticut Sun for $325 million and has pledged to build the team a $100 million training facility.

For the record: Players have never said they should make as much as NBA players. But they know they are worth more than what they earn now, which is a shockingly low 9.3% of the WNBA’s total revenue.

In an essay for the New York Times in June, Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin broke it all down—games played, attendance, viewership, and revenue—and came to the conclusion that the average WNBA salary should be one-quarter to one-third of the average NBA salary to achieve pay equity.

Based on the NBA average of $12 million for the 2024-2025 season, that means the women’s average should be in the $3 million to $4 million range. Again, they’re earning around $130,000 this year.

So yeah, Pay Them What You Owe Them.

Shalise Manza Young was most recently a columnist at Yahoo Sports, focusing on the intersection of race, gender and culture in sports. The Associated Press Sports Editors named her one of the 10 best columnists in the country in 2020. She has also written for the Boston Globe and Providence Journal. Find her on Bluesky @shalisemyoung.

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