After a drawn-out labor battle, the WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Player's Association (which reps WNBA players) have reached a verbal agreement for the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement. The agreement comes less than two months before the start of the 30^th WNBA season.

"The progress made in these discussions marks a transformative step forward for players and the league, and it's underscoring a shared commitment to the continued growth of the game," WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters, per ESPN.

This tentative agreement comes after months of commentary from players about how things need to improve in the league, and more recently, days of marathon negotiations. Here’s what you need to know.

What is a collective bargaining agreement?

A collective bargaining agreement is a legal contract between an employer (in this case, the WNBA) and its employees (the players), according to the U.S. Department of Labor. It usually breaks down things like salary, benefits, and working conditions, making a collective bargaining agreement something everyone involved in an organization really cares about.

This isn’t the first time the WNBA has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with its players. Previous collective bargaining agreements were reached in 1999, 2003, 2008, 2014, and 2020.

What is the players’ union hoping to achieve?

The exact details of this collective bargaining agreement are under wraps for now, but much of it seems to revolve around player compensation and revenue sharing.

While the WNBA has skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years, many players still need to work in the offseason to make money. That’s fueled the rise of Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 league founded by WNBA stars and WNBPA vice presidents Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, which promises players six-figure salaries and an ownership stake. By comparison, rookie salaries for the WNBA are $76,000 a year.

Here's what the collective bargaining agreement includes right now, per ESPN:

• New salary cap of $7 million, up from $1.5 million (meaning teams can pay players more)
• Average revenue share of nearly 20%
• Supermax (the highest possible salary a player can earn) starting at $1.4 million
• Average salaries around $600,000, with a minimum above $300,000

Las Vegas Aces point guard Chelsea Gray previously told Women’s Health that the salary system is an important part of this bargaining, along with revenue sharing. (Meaning, if the league or team sees a growth in revenue, some amount of that would be passed on to the players.)

But there's more to it than that. “I would say, obviously, care for mothers, care for building a family [and] what that looks like, better working conditions,” she continued. “The practice facility should be the standard. And then also protecting our legacy in the future.”

Atlanta Dream forward Naz Hillmon also told WH that state-of-the-art facilities and revenue is “huge” in this collective bargaining agreement. But retirement benefits for former players, along with housing and other benefits for current players, are also on the table.

“Players before us and after, being able to have benefits for them—it's a little bit of a thank you,” she said. “They built this league, the foundation of it. Obviously a big part of it is the basketball, but the way that they stood up for what they believed in—I feel like that's what the W is, when players talk about issues that are going on in the world.”

Hillmon said the players are working together on this. “We’re ready to stand in for as long as we need to have this transformational collective bargaining agreement, and just be super united about it and go about it in the right way,” she said.

What happens now?

The collective bargaining agreement needs to be written and finalized. But the negotiations should not impact the 2026 schedule.

Training camp is set to start on April 19, followed by preseason games on April 25. The regular season will start on May 8.

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