How Much do Surrogates REALLY get Paid?
Becoming a surrogate is a selfless and precious act that no amount of money can adequately compensate. Women who become surrogates typically do not see the financial compensation as the main reason for doing surrogacy. Instead, helping others build their families and engaging in a life-changing experience are their primary motivations for becoming surrogates/gestational carriers.
Surrogates devote a great deal of time and energy to the process that begins well before the pregnancy even starts. Surrogates go through extensive medical and psychological screening, often taking several months. After that, the embryo transfer cycle begins, and if all goes well, she then becomes pregnant. With surrogate pregnancies as with all pregnancies, there is always the risk for pregnancy related complications during the pregnancy as well as postpartum.
Nonetheless, surrogacy is a remarkable way for one family to help another family. While the intended parents grow their families through surrogacy, the surrogate’s family also benefits financially. Surrogates often use the compensation to further their own education, start a college fund for their children, start a business, or simply pay off any outstanding debts. Not only is the experience gratifying and life-changing but it is also a very practical way of making their own family more financially secure.
According to a 2024 CBS news article, a first time surrogate typically makes between $45,000 and $55,000 for the base compensation. First time surrogates with surrogacy friendly private insurance tend to have compensations on the higher end of this range. In addition, repeat surrogates make significantly more with each subsequent journey.
When one sees claims online for surrogates making upwards of $90,000, a few things should be taken into consideration. While there is great demand for surrogates and compensation has increased significantly in the recent past for surrogates working with both surrogacy agencies and independently, these high amounts are typically for repeat surrogates with surrogacy friendly insurance. Also, this is not a base compensation amount but a total compensation amount for all aspects of the surrogacy journey. The amount may even include insurance premiums and maternity leave allowances paid for by the intended parents. Once again, this is not a base compensation amount and is rarely represented in the surrogacy contract.
At Capital Surrogacy, the average base compensation for a first-time surrogate is approximately $50,000. In addition to this, there are substantial payments at milestones in the surrogacy journey that significantly increase the total compensation to $60,000-$80,000. The most significant payments at Capital Surrogacy include:
- Sign on bonus directly from Capital Surrogacy – $2,000
- Monthly allowance for expenses – $3500 ($250 per month for 14 months)
- Embryo transfer – $1,000 per transfer
- Maternity clothing allowance – $500-$750
- C-section, if needed – $2,500
- Multiples stipend – $7,500 per additional child
With the additional compensation amounts, in addition to benefits such as health and life insurance plus paid maternity leave, the total compensation can go up significantly. The total compensation amounts are what surrogacy agencies often advertise and why the numbers can sometimes be inflated. This also makes intended parents concerned about the total cost of the surrogacy process.
Capital Surrogacy has created a surrogate compensation worksheet that helps potential surrogates calculate their own anticipated compensation. The worksheet is user friendly and provides a realistic estimate of how much a surrogate would make in total compensation. In this way, Capital Surrogacy is as upfront as possible to both potential surrogates and intended parents as to the actual surrogate compensation amounts and total surrogacy journey costs.
At Capital Surrogacy, our surrogates are valued individuals and will choose compensation amounts based on their unique situations and needs. We are also providing safeguards to protect the surrogate in all surrogacy journeys, but especially necessary in those journeys that are more physically and emotionally demanding.
We encourage all prospective surrogates to contact Capital Surrogacy and learn more about their potential surrogate compensation. Please visit our compensation page and also complete the short contact form, we cannot wait to hear from you!
