WNBA rookie sensation and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese recently disclosed financial woes that impacts her ability to pay rent.
Here’s what Angel Reese said about her Chicago Sky salary and where her WNBA pay would rank in New Jersey.
What did Angel Reese say?
As mentioned in several published reports, Chicago Sky rookie forward Angel Reese disclosed that her WNBA salary wasn’t enough to cover rent.
Reese’s rent is around $100,000, and while she has acknowledged spending beyond her means, Reese’s current rookie-scale WNBA contract alone is not enough to cover housing costs.
How much does Angel Reese make?
Angel Reese disclosed her personal finance crunch and the amount of her WNBA contract in an interview with Vibe.
“Hating pays them bills, baby. I just hope you know the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all,” Reese said in the Vibe interview. “I don’t even think that pays one of my bills. Literally, I’m trying to think of my rent for where I stay at. Let me do the math real quick. I don’t even know my [WNBA] salary. $74,000?”
Angel Reese, drafted 7th in the 2024 WNBA Draft, is locked into a four-year contract that has a total value of $324,383. That means Angel Reese’s annual salary from the WNBA is roughly $81,095.75.
The WNBA’s average salary for the 2024 season was $147,745.
Would Angel Reese’s salary put her in the middle class in New Jersey?
Angel Reese’s WNBA salary would put her in New Jersey’s middle class range, but being middle class in New Jersey is an expensive proposition overall.
A recent report from GOBankingRates found the range for middle class income across the country is between $49,271 to $147,828, with a median income of $73,914.
But, your paycheck would need to be 27 percent bigger in New Jersey to meet the minimum income for middle class status.
What is middle class in New Jersey?
The middle class is a socioeconomic group that falls between the working class and the upper class. They are likely to have enough disposable income to afford eating out and vacationing, but also rely on loans for their homes, cars and student loans, according to Investopia.
According to GOBankingRates, New Jersey’s middle class income in 2022 (the most recent year available from Census data) was between $64,751 and $194,252, a 35.58% change from 10 years prior; in 2012 it fell between $47,758 to $143,274.
New Jersey’s median household income is $97,126 according to the Census Bureau.
The Garden State ranks second in the country with the highest income range to qualify for middle class.
Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist reporting on trending topics across the Mid-Atlantic Region.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Angel Reese’s money woes: Would her WNBA salary be middle class in NJ?
