BENDIGO Spirit players on the minimum WNBL contract can look forward to a pay rise in 2019-20.
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The WNBL and Australian Basketballers' Association has jointly announced the minimum player payment has been increased to $13,000 for the next two seasons.
This represents a 73 per cent increase on last season.
The increase in payments is part of the league's Minimum Conditions Agreement, which will run for the next two seasons, and continues the WNBL's endeavour towards providing athletes with the best possible working conditions.
The payments are in addition to guaranteed contracts, restricted training periods and total hours as well as improved conditions for travel, promotional appearances and young development players.
WNBL head Sally Phillips said the outcome emerged through collaborative negotiation between the players' association, the league and clubs, with the parties acknowledging a collective desire to provide competitive salaries, empowering female basketballers and enabling athletes to commit to playing basketball at the elite level.
"Our players just competed in one of the best WNBL seasons in league history and the WNBL wants to ensure they are recognised for being the driving force behind that success," she said.
"The WNBL's vision is to be Australia's most accessible, inspiring and globally elite women's professional sporting league.
"To continue to strive towards that vision becoming a reality we need to continue to raise the bar for our athletes' salaries and conditions.
"Young girls playing basketball need to see there is a clear career pathway and continued improvements in conditions for our WNBL athletes is a high priority.
"We want the best athletes in our League, and we want to see girls making basketball their sport of choice."
Australian Basketballers' Association CEO Jacob Holmes said this was good news for WNBL players but more progress was required to reward full-time professional athletes.
"The minimum wage increase is an important demonstration that the league and clubs value all WNBL players," Holmes said.
"For us, this is foundational. We need to keep working to ensure that players are adequately rewarded for their contribution to the sport, continue to attract and retain players to the WNBL and produce the next generation of Opals.
"We also need to work to drive the culture of professionalism and grow the game so it can create more opportunities and revenue to enable the players, Clubs and League achieve their potential."
The wage rise comes 12 months after the players' association announced the establishment of the WNBL's first parental and pregnancy care policy.