Caitlin Clark is the hottest new WNBA player in a decade—but she’s making less per year than the average New York worker

Caitlin Clark is holding up one side of an Indiana Fever jersey as WNBA Commissioner Cath Engelbert holds up the other (Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Basketball phenom and WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark knows how to hit three-pointers and smash glass ceilings: She’s the all-time scorer in college basketball—men’s or women’s—with 3,951 points, the first NCAA player to score 3,800 points, and a three-time NCAA First Team All-American member, all by the age of 22. But by her WNBA salary, you’d never know it.

The No. 1 pick for the WNBA draft on Monday, Clark is slated to make just $76,535 her first year on the Indiana Fever. That’s less than the average $78,620 salary of a New Yorker, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. She’ll make a total of $338,000 during her four-year contract, per the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement.