The 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between the league and the players' union this week will have an enormous impact on the players who are already in the league, as well as rookies who will enter this year and in the future. But there's another group of players who will also gain something from the new deal: those who retired with at least five years of service in the league.
Per The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov, the new CBA promises back pay to athletes who have retired from the league. Players with five to seven years of service will be paid $30,000; players with eight to 11 years of service will receive $50,000; and players with 12 or more years of service will receive $100,000.
The payments are proof positive that the members of the WNBPA wanted to improve the lives of those who played before them. The WNBA isn't the first professional league to build in some kind of provision for retirees; the NFL's 2020 CBA increased benefits, including penisons, for players who had retired from the league.
The inclusion of increased benefits for retirees also underscores the players' insistence that they were looking out for everyone as they negotiated the terms of the new agreement. They weren't beholden to retired players, and it would have been easy for them to simply leave that important group of athletes out. Instead, they made a point of finding a way to include everyone. The money might not be life-changing, but it will likely affirm to retired WNBA players that they're still part of the league, and that the current group of athletes haven't forgotten what they did to build the W into what it is.
Incoming and future rookies will also benefit from the CBA
Rookies who are drafted this year will enter the WNBA with the new terms set, but players who are in the league on their rookie contracts will also get a big paycheck boost once the CBA is locked in, and future rookies will only know this deal. The 2026 CBA is good for the next seven years.
Per reporting from USA Today, who spoke to a source familiar with negotiations, all players who are currently under contract in the league — including those who are still on rookie contracts — will be graduated from the rookie minimum they've been receiving to the new league minimum. That's a big jump from $66,607 to more than $300,000.