NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA and its players union have reached the next step in their new collective bargaining agreement, signing a term sheet.
Now they wait for ratification by the players and approval from the league's Board of Governors as lawyers from both sides continue to write the new CBA.
The new seven-year CBA, which will begin this season and run through 2032, represents a transformational landmark labor deal for the league.
“This Collective Bargaining Agreement represents a defining moment in the WNBA’s 30-year history and all of women’s professional sports,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “Since its inception, the WNBA has been shaped by extraordinary athletes who believed in the league’s future. The agreement is a testament to that belief and to the tremendous progress we have achieved together.”
It will only take a simple majority of the players to approve the new CBA. That vote, and the WNBA’s Board of Governors vote, are expected to be done soon. The union has been holding information sessions with the players over the last day or so. They had a number of sessions to accommodate players competing overseas.
Here are a few key points from the CBA.
The salary cap for the 2026 season is expected to be $7 million with average salaries of more than $585,000. Top players can make over $1 million for the first time in the league’s history with a supermax salary close to $1.4 million. The cap could grow up to $11 million in 2032 if revenue projections go well. That would project a max salary at $2.4 million.
The salary cap can change a maximum of 10% in either direction each year with the exception of after the first season when it could up or down 13%, according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.
The minimum salary for this year would be $270,000 to $300,000 and rise to $380,000 by 2032. The average salary would be around $583,000 before revenue sharing in 2026 and could rise to more than $1 million at the end of the deal.
Teams will continue to pay for housing for the first three years of the deal. In 2029 and 2030, teams will pay for housing for players earning $500,000 or less. After that, teams will only pay for the housing of developmental players.
The No. 1 pick in the draft next month will earn $500,000. All existing rookie-scale contracts will also be adjusted to delivery meaningful pay increases to them. Rookie contracts will remain for four years. Players on rookie deals who earn All-WNBA honors can get the maximum salary in the fourth year of their contract if they sign a three-year extension with their team. So far Caitlin Clark would be eligible for that in 2027, Paige Bueckers in 2028 and Aliyah Boston this season.
There are significant increases in bonuses offered to players for awards as well as postseason success. Players on the WNBA championship team each will receive $60,000 — nearly triple what they earned last year. The MVP of the league will make a $60,000 bonus — up from $15,000. All-WNBA honors also will triple from last season with first-team players making $30,000. Those will grow starting in 2027 at the rate of the growth of the salary cap.
The league codified charter travel that will cost over $300 million over the life of the deal. There will be expanded first-class travel accommodations for players across league events. The WNBA will increase life insurance benefits to more than $700,000 per player and increase team contributions to 401K retirement accounts. The WNBA also will have a one-time payment to retired players and veterans that would be $100,000 for those who have played 12 years or more.
Teams will be required to carry 12 players on their roster and now have two developmental players. Those players don't count against the salary cap. Starting in 2027, players with seven ore more years of service can't be designated with a franchise tag. There's a salary cap exception for pregnancy and child birth. A team now must obtain a player's consent before trading a pregnant player.
The league will expand to 50 games in 2027 and 2028 and up to 52 in 2029-32. The league will play 44 games again this season that starts May 8.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
FILE -WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks prior to Game 1 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series between the Las Vegas Aces and the Phoenix Mercury, Oct. 3, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher), File)
FILE - Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike (3) plays against the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of a WNBA basketball first-round playoff game Sept. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Eviction notices. Vehicle repossessions. Empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts.
Union leaders and federal officials say these are just some of the financial pressures Transportation Security Administration agents are facing during an ongoing government funding lapse — the third shutdown in less than six months that has forced the officers who screen airport passengers and luggage to keep working without pay.
The public is experiencing the consequences in long wait times at some airports as more TSA officers take time off to earn money on the side or cut back on expenses. At least 376 have quit their jobs altogether since the shutdown began on Valentine's Day, according to the Department of Homeland Security, exacerbating staff turnover at an agency that historically has had some of the U.S. government's highest attrition and lowest employee morale.
“It's just exhausting. Every day it just feels like this weight gets heavier and heavier on us,” Cameron Cochems, a local TSA union leader in Boise, Idaho, told The Associated Press.
Airport screeners have spent nearly half of the past 170 days with their paychecks held up by politics — 43 days last fall during the longest government shutdown in history, four days earlier this year during a brief funding lapse, and now 35 days and counting during the current shutdown, which affects only the Department of Homeland Security. They are considered essential so have to keep showing up for work whether they get paid or not.
Cochems, who has worked as a TSA agent for more than four years and is vice president of his regional American Federation of Government Employees chapter, said the number of resignations likely doesn't fully capture the extent of the agency's personnel challenges. He thinks many more officers would already have walked away in a stronger job market.
“I think more people are staying with the TSA that don’t want to be here,” Cochems said.
The House Committee on Homeland Security has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to review the partial shutdown's impact on the TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies within DHS.
A 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that TSA’s workforce has long struggled with some of the lowest morale in the federal government, driven in part by years of comparatively low pay and persistent workplace frustrations. While recent raises have helped, the report said dissatisfaction remained widespread, with officers citing inconsistent management, limited recognition and poor work-life balance.
The starting pay for TSA agents is about $34,500, and the average salary is $46,000 to $55,000, according to the agency's careers website.
The GAO warned that unless those underlying issues were addressed, the risk of officers leaving the workforce was likely to persist.
For Cochems, the recent shutdowns have upended the sense of stability that drew him to federal service in the first place. He said he already works a seasonal side job screening college sports teams at airports to supplement his income. Now, with his TSA paychecks halted, even that isn’t enough to keep up with basic expenses.
The financial pressure on his family intensified after his wife was unexpectedly laid off from her job two weeks ago.
“Every day I come to the airport and I look at the food drive, see what things I can get for my family,” he said, referring to the donations that his airport, like many others, are soliciting to help TSA workers.
It's unclear how long airport screeners will have to keep working unpaid. Both chambers of Congress are scheduled to be out of Washington the first two weeks of April. And Democrats have said the department won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.
For travelers, the strain in TSA staffing has made airport conditions increasingly unpredictable. Wait times have stretched into multiple hours at some airports, with passengers in cities like Houston, Atlanta and New Orleans reporting delays long enough to miss flights.
TSA officers missed their first full paycheck last weekend, and absences are climbing nationwide, according to Homeland Security. More than half of scheduled staff were absent Sunday at an airport in Houston. At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, 38% of officers missed work on Wednesday and 32% on Thursday.
“I’ve heard from officers who cannot afford copayments for cancer treatments or office visits for their sick children,” Aaron Barker, a local TSA union leader in Atlanta, said at a news conference outside the airport this week.
Homeland Security has said roughly 50,000 TSA employees would work during the shutdown. Nationwide on Thursday, about 10% of TSA agents missed work, the department reported. The absentee rate was two or three times higher in some places: 33% at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, 29% at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, 27% at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and 23% at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The staffing shortages have also forced some airports to close checkpoints, with wait times swinging dramatically throughout the day in some cases. Early Friday, Hartsfield-Jackson had two-hour waits before easing to less than five minutes by early afternoon, and then jumping back up to 90 minutes.
Security line wait times at Houston's main airport exceeded two hours on Friday afternoon. Videos posted to social media showed lines snaking around the airport and down an escalator, spilling into the baggage claim area.
In a Fox News interview this week, Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl warned that the latest shutdown could have lasting consequences for staffing, saying attrition and recruitment would likely suffer. Staff depatures increased after the record one last fall, Stahl said.
“We saw an uptick of 25% attrition after the last shutdown, and so this is going to continue and worsen — not get better, get worse — if we don’t get a resumption of normal operations, DHS funded and money back into our TSA officers’ pockets," he said, adding that the agency has exhausted its options, including deploying emergency manpower, to keep airport security checkpoints adequately staffed.
Former TSA Administrator John Pistole has said that about 1,100 officers quit during last year’s shutdown that ended in November.
Air travelers endure long lines and two-hour wait times at the TSA security check point at Terminal E at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Air travelers endure long lines and two-hour wait times at the TSA security check point at Terminal E at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Air travelers endure long lines and two-hour wait times at the TSA security check point at Terminal E at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Air travelers endure long lines and two-hour wait times at the TSA security check point at Terminal E at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
Air travelers endure long lines and two-hour wait times at the TSA security check point at Terminal E at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
