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WNBA All-Stars Aren't Staying Quiet About Low Pay

Jul 19, 2025 8:48 PM EDT

To say that the publicity around the WNBA’s All-Star Weekend has gone swimmingly would be incorrect.

During the July 8 drafting of the teams by Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier, fans seemed to be more enamored with the fact that Collier was sporting a t-shirt of the WNBA’s rival 3-on-3 league, which debuted earlier this year, “Unrivaled.”

It is the league that pays the highest average salary out of any professional women’s sports league, and one that has emphasized how far the WNBA has to go when it comes to adequately paying players.

While the WNBA may have thought or hoped that fans would forget or stop discussing the players’ wages, before Saturday’s All-Star Game, the players made sure to bring it to light, again.

After taking off their warmups, the players were all sporting T-shirts that sent a clear message to the WNBA.

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The message reads, “Pay us what you owe us.”

Players clearly felt it was necessary to highlight this sentiment just days after the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) rebuked the proposal by the WNBA as the two parties are actively trying to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement.

The WNBPA opted out of the current CBA back in October, and have had multiple notable players such as Angel Reese threaten the league with a lockout if their demands are not met.

As it stands right now, Las Vegas Aces star Jackie Young leads the league in average annual value, bringing in over $252,000. The minimum contract in the WNBA is valued at around $64,000 per year.

The players are well aware that the sport’s popularity is as high as it’s ever been, with the league bringing in an all-time record of more than 54 million unique viewers across ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ION and NBA TV this past season.

If the WNBA thought the players were bluffing, this message should indicate that they are not by any means.