Highest-Paid NBA Referees – Average Salary of an NBA Referee

The NBA referees have a fulltime job with each team playing 82 games during a regular season. The referees are required to be physically fit and must be able to run along with the players in order to keep up with what is going on in the game. They are also required to know all of the rules by heart and must be able to make difficult decisions during the games.

With the league’s reach continually expanding internationally into Europe, Asia and Africa, soaring sponsorship, TV deals and merchandise licensing worth billions of dollars the NBA’s brand and popularity is at an all-time high.

For the first time in the league’s history, the average value of an NBA team is worth $1.25 billion. On top of all that, the new collective bargaining agreement have the players themselves raking in more and more of the league’s profits. That’s great for the players as the franchise owners and their management have been taking a huge piece of the pie for decades.

So even if the players are now getting more of the revenue, rest assured that management is still getting paid, what about NBA referees? Has their pay been commiserate with league revenue? It’s not an easy answer.

The NBA referees have a full-time job during the 8 month season. As we know, each NBA team plays 82 games during the regular season. And it’s no joke, a prerequisite for an NBA referee is to be physically fit so that they’re able to run along with the players and being constantly aware in order to make the correct calls. They’re also required to know all of the rules and able to make quick and difficult decisions under duress.

So how much is an NBA referee’s annual salary? An NBA ref’s average pay falls in the range of $150,000 to $550,000 dependent on the referee’s experience. This latest information we were able to find is a couple years old, but these numbers has been referenced several times on many different sites.

How much do NBA referees make per year?

The average salary for an NFL referee sits somewhere between $25,000 to $70,000 per year. When comparing this price to the income of the other sports referees, this isn’t much though the job profile involves training and a great deal of traveling.

NBA Referee Salary Range

Referees in the NBA make anywhere from $100,000 to $550,000 for a season of 82 games total. This is certainly a good salary for a referee.

Entry-Level Referees

Referees that are just starting out in the NBA make $150,000 each year.

Senior Referees

Of course, when you have experience, there is a higher price tag stamped onto that experience. In 2009, the senior referees for the NBA made around $550,000. There are some referees that make higher salaries than this.

WNBA Referee Salaries

In the Women’s National Basketball Association, the referees do not make as much. They average around $500.00 per game for a total of $16,000 per year. They work a shorter season, only 10 teams that play 34 regular-season games. Most of the referees work part time.