Top WNBA Draft Pick Will Earn 175 Times Less Than Their NBA Counterpart

The WNBA Draft will take place on Monday night, and the Dallas Wings are set to make Paige Bueckers the top overall selection. The UConn product is the consensus top overall player in this year’s class after a decorated collegiate career, which ended with her finally securing a championship in her final game with the Huskies.

Comparing WNBA Salaries With Their NBA Counterparts

But despite her accolades, the money that Bueckers is set to earn pales in comparison to what Cooper Flagg should earn on his first NBA contract.

According to Spotrac, the no.1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft is set to secure a three-year contract worth a total of $274,688. They’ll earn an average of $82,000 per year, and the deal will include a club option in the 4th year that should be worth just over $100k.

It is one of the easiest numbers to point to when claiming the inequality in pay between NBA and WNBA salaries. When compared to what the top overall pick on the men’s side is set to earn, the difference is drastic.

Duke’s Cooper Flagg is set to be picked first overall in June. And while the exact dollar amount of his first contract is yet unknown, it will be somewhere around the $60 million mark for four years of service. That comes out to an average annual value of roughly $15 million, with a first year projected payout of about $13 million.

The #1 pick in tonight’s #WNBADraft will secure a 3 year, $247,688 contract with the Dallas Wings, including salaries of:

2025: $78,831
2026: $80,408
2027: $88,449
2028: $100,510 (club option)

— Spotrac (@spotrac) April 14, 2025

That means that the no.1 pick in the NBA will earn about 175 times more over the course of the first four years of his career than the top WNBA pick will.

The wild comparison numbers don’t stop there. The top-earner in the WNBA for the upcoming season is Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young. Thanks to her two-year, $504,900 extension, she is currently the top annual earner in the league, with a per-year average of $252,450. The highest paid NBA player on an annual basis is Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, who makes $57 million on average per season.

That means that the highest-paid NBA player earns roughly 226 times more than the highest-paid in the WNBA.

Jaylen Brown earns an average of $695,121 per game. That is just slightly less than what Jackie Young makes over three full seasons.