| Female professional athletes earn significantly less than do their male counterparts. In their 2003 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the WNBA Players' Association established parameters on minimum and maximum earnings for WNBA players.
Under the guidelines of the agreement, a team's salary cap for 2005 was $673,000. Under the same agreement, players with 0 to 3 years of experience were guaranteed a minimum salary of $30,600 in 2004, while those with 4 or more years of experience earned no less than $43,700 and no more than $87,000 per season.
In contrast, the highest paid player in the NBA, Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal, earned $20,000,000 in 2005 and is one of 17 players across the league who earned more than $15,000,000 for the 2005 season. O'Neal alone earns more in salary than the entire WNBA combined. Also, the minimum salary for an NBA rookie, defined as a player with 0 years of NBA experience, was $385,277 in the 2004-05 season, while a four-year veterancould earn no less than $745,046, according to the CBA reached between the NBA and the NBA Players' Association. |
