The WNBA’s TV ratings and merchandise sales are both on the rise, but salaries continue to lag compared to other leagues around the world. Many female basketball players join overseas leagues because they can make up to 10 times as much money as they can here at home.

LA Times Thuc Nhi Nguyen wrote about the trend and joined host Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today.”

In 2020, the WNBA reached a new collective bargaining agreement. Nguyen explained that the renegotiation set the average WNBA player’s salary at six figures for the first time. NBA players make a minimum of $1.4 million a season. 

“The WNBA celebrated having full paid maternity leave and family planning. Those were some things that were really important to players in the WNBA because they wanted to lead the charge as an all-female sport league, as an all-female business. If we aren’t going to have those things like maternity leave, family planning, who is going to have them?” Nguyen said.  

Many players work overseas during the WNBA off-season to make ends meet. Nguyen talked about how this works. 

“The WNBA season of about 4 to 5 months is not very long compared to what they do overseas. So, in that time that they’re not playing in the WNBA, what they’ll do is go play overseas, whether it’s in Russia, Turkey, Australia, Spain. They’ll play there from October to March or sometimes April until the WNBA training camp starts in April... It can be very tiring for them physically. They’re really putting a lot of strain on their bodies. They’re missing a lot of personal family events, weddings, birthdays, and just all in the name of being a professional athlete,” Nguyen explained.

Women in other sports, like soccer, have had major victories in the fight for equal pay. The NBA has existed longer than its all-female counterpart and brings in more revenue. Still, Nguyen said, the WNBA is gaining popularity and players feel they deserve more as the financials catch up.

“The WNBA just announced that they had their most watched the regular season since 2008. There’s definitely more interest happening in the WNBA. But it’s kind of recent phenomenon. I think a lot of people credited to 2020.. [when] the WNBA was one of the first leagues to return. They played in a bubble, and there was a lot of interest about the WNBA. A lot of the recent growth of the league just started,” she said. 

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview. 

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