How Much Money Do NBA Referees Make?

Ryan Phillips | Oct 10, 2024

NBA referee Scott Foster. / Peter Casey-Imagn Images

The 2024-25 NBA season is upon us and in the lead-up to the campaign we've been looking at salaries. We've covered the average NBA salary and what G-League players make. Now it's time to turn our attention to the other guys on the floor.

Referees are a vital part of every NBA game. They get paid pretty well for what they do. What follows is a look at their salaries and how the structure works.

How much do NBA referees get paid?

Unlike the league's players, NBA referee salaries typically aren't made public. The NBA and the NBA Referees Association came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement in 2022 that will run through the 2028-29 season. Per league policy, the terms of the agreement aren't publicly disclosed.

How officials make money is fairly complicated. Their base salary is dictated by their seniority. It is a scale that increases every year, topping out at the 30-year mark. Every season of service increases that base salary until the official hits 30 years with the league. Referees are also consistently judged on performance and can earn promotions and salary increases by performing at a high level.

The reported top base salary for a senior official was $550,000. That's around $7,000 per game. The low end of the compensation scale is reportedly around $150,000. That can be added two in two ways: working more than the normal quota of games and refereeing playoff games.

Who are the highest-paid NBA referees?

While figures aren't publicly available, we can assume the most senior NBA referees are the league's highest-paid. James Capers, Sean Corbin, Tony Brothers, and Scott Foster are among that group.

Some may quibble with some of those guys being the highest-paid officials due to some questionable, high-profile performances in the past, but the league clearly values them to that level.

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