Basketball · published WNBA scale
Sue Bird’s salary, and why a WNBA figure is better documented
Sue Bird played her final WNBA season on a salary of $72,141, the veteran minimum in the league’s published pay scale: having taken a cut from a ceiling the same scale set at $228,094. This is the rare case in professional sport where an individual salary can be read straight off a public document, because the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement fixes exact amounts rather than describing a range.
- Final-season salary, at the published veteran minimum
- $72,141
The 2022 veteran minimum in the WNBA’s published salary scale. She signed for it in her last season, below the $228,094 supermax the same scale allowed.
The WNBA pay scale is a published table, not a reported figure
The 2020 collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players’ union sets out, for each season it covers, the maximum base salary, the supermax, the rookie minimum and the veteran minimum. Those are exact dollar amounts in a document published by both sides.
The consequence inverts the usual situation. In the NBA a nine-figure contract is known only because a club announced it and reporters wrote it down. In the WNBA a five- or six-figure salary is often knowable to the dollar, because the scale is public and most contracts sit exactly on one of its rungs.
That is why this page prints $72,141 without hedging. It is not an estimate of what she was paid; it is the amount the published scale specifies for a veteran minimum in that season, and her signing at that level was reported at the time.
| Rung on the scale | Amount | Where it is set |
|---|---|---|
| Supermax base salary | $228,094 | 2020 collective bargaining agreement |
| Veteran minimum | $72,141 | Same agreement, minimum salary table |
Cash compensation in the league can exceed base salary through prize pools and marketing agreements defined in the same document. Base salary is what the scale fixes, and it is what this page quotes.
What a pay cut in a final season actually signals
Reported at the time as a deliberate reduction, it let her club fit its roster inside a hard cap that the same agreement defines. Cap arithmetic in a league with fully published scales is unusually legible: the cap is a number, the rungs are numbers, and a roster either fits or it does not.
It also makes a point about the difference between pay and standing. Her final-season salary is among the smallest figures on this site and her competition record, championships, All-Star selections, Olympic gold medals: is among the strongest. The two are kept by different bodies and measure different things.
What remains private
Everything outside the scale. Endorsement contracts, broadcasting work, investment and ownership interests and overseas club salaries (the last of which, for a generation of WNBA players, often exceeded the domestic figure) are private commercial matters that none of the parties publishes.
A wealth total assembled from those would be an estimate of an estimate. The documented part is the published scale and the competition record, and that is what this page holds.
Questions readers send
How much did Sue Bird earn in her final WNBA season?
$72,141: the veteran minimum in the WNBA’s published salary scale for 2022, below the $228,094 supermax the same scale allowed.
Can the $72,141 be checked without seeing her contract?
Yes. It is a rung on the published scale for 2022 rather than an estimate of what she was paid, and her signing at the veteran minimum was reported at the time. The scale is in the collective bargaining agreement, which the league and the union publish jointly.
Did she earn more elsewhere?
Overseas club contracts, endorsements and broadcasting work are private and unpublished. For many players of her era the overseas salary exceeded the domestic one, but the amounts are on no public register.
Why would a player of her standing sign for the veteran minimum?
It was reported at the time as a deliberate reduction that let her club fit its roster inside the hard cap the same agreement defines. Cap arithmetic in a league with fully published scales is unusually legible: the cap is a number, the rungs are numbers, and a roster either fits or it does not. Pay and standing are kept by different bodies.
Where these figures are published
- 01 WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Players Association, Exact maximum, supermax and minimum base salaries per season, including the 2022 supermax of $228,094 and the veteran minimum of $72,141 2020 collective bargaining agreement, salary scale tables
- 02 WNBA and club salary announcements, 2022 season, That she re-signed at the veteran minimum for her final season Coverage of her re-signing ahead of the 2022 season
More in this register
All of them- Isaiah Thomas $6.26m Salary for 2017-18, the season the deal became famous
- Jordan Clarkson $55m Three-year Utah extension announced in 2023
- Kevin Garnett $334,304,240 Career NBA salary, compiled from announced contracts
- Maya Moore $117,000 Base salary in 2017 and 2018, under the scale then in force
- Ray Allen ≈$184m Career NBA salary across 18 seasons
- Shawn Kemp $107m 1997 Cleveland contract as reported, and disputed since