A deep dive into Angel Reese’s financial reality and what it reveals about pay disparities in women’s professional sports.
The Chicago Sky star says her rent is $8,000 per month — well beyond what her five-figure WNBA salary would allow her to afford.
With the WNBA’s increased popularity and new eyes on the league due to the influx of two dynamic rookies, it can be easy to forget that the enormous pay inequity between WNBA and NBA players remains the same.
Yet Angel Reese, one of those dynamic rookies, reignited the discussion around the gender pay gap for players in The W, when she recently stated on Instagram Live, “I just hope y’all know, the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all.”
RELATED: Angel Reese Joins Ownership Group for New Women’s Soccer Team in D.C.
How could it? Reese’s salary was so insignificant to her, that she stated that she didn’t even know what it amounted to. And why should she? After the Chicago Sky drafted her seventh overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Reese signed a four-year contract worth $324,383 with an average annual salary of $81,096. For a first-year student out of college, the average American could surmise that this would be a more than decent salary to live off. For a high-profile superstar athlete like Reese living in Chicago, the most expensive major city in the Midwest, it’s peanuts.
But before I start crying a river for Reese, let’s remember that Reese, a student at LSU, had several NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals with brands like Reebok, Topps, Aribnb, Tampax, Beat by Dre, Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge, Mc’Donald’s, Coach and Sony PlayStation just to name a few. Her estimated NIL value was between $1.7-$1.8M. Since becoming a pro, that estimation has increased to upwards of $2M.
It’s no secret that Reese and her WNBA counterpart’s “bags” pale compared to players in the NBA. The average NBA salary for the 2023-24 season exceeds $12 million, while WNBA players earn an average of just $116,580. Yet, if we all do simple math, there is no comparison to even be made. The NBA is projected to earn $13 billion in revenue in 2024, while the WNBA is expected to cap at only $200 million for 2024. Even with the WNBA being more popular than ever before and revenue doubling since 2019, the league’s highest-paid player is the Las Vegas Aces’ Jackie Young at $252,450 per year.
Explore Angel Reese’s financial challenges in the WNBA and the broader implications for female athletes’ pay in professional sports.
Keywords: Angel Reese, WNBA salaries, women’s sports pay, athlete financial struggles, basketball
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