Caitlin Clark's WNBA Salary Is 0.76% of Her NBA Counterpart's and the People Are Enraged
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Now that Caitlin Clark—whose enormous talent on the court has been credited with bringing in unprecedented viewership to women's college basketball—has officially been named the WNBA's number one draft pick for 2024, you'd think she's about to get majorly paid. Well, you'd be wrong. Caitlin Clark's salary as the WNBA's number one pick will be $76,535 a year, according to the The Washington Post.
For scale, the NBA's number one draft pick will earn more than $10 million. The Prada outfit Clark wore to the draft is worth about 22% of her entire yearly salary, per Business Insider's estimate. And guess what? The people are pissed.
On X (formerly Twitter), reactions ranged from the genuinely stunned to the sadly unsurprised.
One person on Twitter observed, “On this salary Caitlin Clark would qualify for low income housing in San Francisco.” Another person noted, “What if I told y’all this is a great improvement from just 5 years ago. A lot of them used to come in making 40k.”
Many compared Caitlin Clark's reported salary to that of a first year accountant, or a “department store manager in Indianapolis,” or a, “general manager of a California McDonalds,” or a college professor.
Others pointed out that Clark will still likely be making money from endorsement deals, even if that's not really the point. “Genuinely insane how low of a salary she’ll be making. Yes, she’ll get tons in endorsements but this is highway robbery,” wrote one person.
Others urged more people to support the WNBA by watching and buying merch. “If you think this pay is trash this is your time to start tuning in to the WNBA,” another person wrote on Twitter. “They not getting paid cuz you not watching! Yes, YOU 🫵🏾.”
Which may be true. But I still feel like Caitlin Clark should not be earning less than 1% of what her male counterpart is making.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
