How much does a first-time surrogate earn in Colorado?
A first-time gestational surrogate in Colorado who matches through Private Label Surrogacy receives a typical total package of roughly $68,000 to $78,000. Base compensation is $60,000 (proposed, up from $55,000). If you have completed a surrogacy before, your base is $65,000 to $70,000.
The total package is the more complete number, so it comes first. Base compensation is the biggest part of it, and allowances and milestone payments make up the rest. Every PLS figure here is pending final confirmation by Nancy Block, RN, and is marked as such until confirmed.
Colorado does not change the figures. PLS pays the same base in every state where it recruits. What Colorado does change is the legal framework, which is written into state law, and where you go for monitoring.
The author is Natalie Gaudio-Fricano, a PLS case manager. She was a three-time egg donor and then a gestational surrogate, delivering a boy for an international couple in October 2016 after a first-transfer success. She has worked in medicine since 2002.
What is in the full compensation package?
"Typical" refers to a singleton pregnancy with the usual allowances and milestone payments. How long your journey runs, whether you pump, and the lost wages you document all move your final number.
| Component | Amount | Triggered by | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base, first-time | $60,000 (proposed) | Heartbeat confirmed | Installments through pregnancy |
| Base, experienced | $65,000 to $70,000 | Heartbeat confirmed | Installments through pregnancy |
| Monthly allowance | $300 | Signing the agreement | Every month |
| Medication start | $500 | Beginning injectable medications | At the start |
| Transfer fee | $1,000 | Each embryo transfer | At each transfer |
| Maternity clothing | $750; $1,000 for multiples | Confirmed pregnancy | One time |
| Housekeeping | $90 per week | 32 weeks of pregnancy | Weekly to delivery |
| Pumping | $200 per week | Pumping breast milk after delivery, if you choose | Weekly |
| Twins | $5,000 extra | Twin pregnancy | With base installments |
| Triplets | $10,000 extra | Triplet pregnancy | With base installments |
| Lost wages, you and your partner | Documented actual wages | Journey-related time off | As incurred |
| Life insurance | Extended policy up to $750,000 | Before transfer | Premium paid by the intended parents |
Payment triggers and timing: confirm schedule with Nancy.
An illustration for an experienced surrogate: a $65,000 base, about 12 months of the $300 allowance ($3,600), the $500 medication payment, one $1,000 transfer and $750 for maternity clothing comes to $70,850, before housekeeping, lost wages and pumping. Your agreement sets your actual figures.
Travel is reimbursed separately. When you go to the intended parents' clinic, escrow pays your flights, hotel, meals, mileage and child care, and the lost wages of both you and a companion.
You also get support that costs you nothing. Independent licensed professionals provide mental-health support. Julie Bendix, MPH, RD, LD, CLC, a registered dietitian and lactation counselor, holds at least six nutrition consults with you. The intended parents pay for your own attorney and, if your health insurance excludes surrogacy, for a separate policy.
When is each payment made and who holds the money?
Your allowance starts at signing. The $500 medication payment comes when injections begin, and $1,000 follows each transfer. Base compensation starts in installments once a heartbeat is confirmed. Housekeeping support begins at 32 weeks. After delivery you receive the final base installment and, if you pump, the weekly pumping payment.
If a transfer does not result in a pregnancy, you keep the allowance, medication payment and transfer fee already paid. Base compensation depends on a confirmed pregnancy.
Colorado adds a useful check here. Colorado law requires the agreement to be signed before medications begin. PLS also requires the intended parents to fund escrow before your medications start: $10,000 at match and the full balance before medications. So by the time you take a first injection, the agreement is signed and the money is in place.
PLS never holds your money. An independent licensed escrow agent does, and pays you under your agreement. Ask your attorney for written confirmation that the account is funded.
The reason is practical. The Surro Connections agency collapsed in late 2025, and a federal indictment followed in August 2026. The SEAM escrow failure involved more than $16 million. In 2025 and 2026, PLS took on three surrogates, pro bono, after their agencies failed. See how escrow works.
What are the requirements to become a surrogate in Colorado?
Colorado law requires a surrogate to be at least 21, to have given birth before, and to complete medical and mental-health evaluations. PLS's criteria include those and add more. You must be:
- 21 to 43 years old
- A US citizen or permanent resident
- At a BMI under 33
- A mother with at least one healthy full-term pregnancy, raising a child now
- A non-smoker
- Not receiving government assistance
- Living in a stable home
- Not currently taking antidepressants
Screening has seven steps: application, interview, records review by Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, background check, insurance review, a psychological evaluation by an independent licensed professional, and medical screening at the intended parents' clinic. Dr. Silverberg reads your prenatal and delivery records himself. Expect several weeks once your records arrive.
Where do Colorado surrogates do monitoring and transfer?
Colorado surrogates matched through PLS do their monitoring at a clinic in Denver or Colorado Springs. If you live elsewhere in Colorado, your nearest monitoring option is being confirmed. Monitoring covers the bloodwork and ultrasounds before transfer and in early pregnancy. The intended parents pay for those visits.
You travel to the intended parents' fertility clinic for screening and for the embryo transfer. A companion can travel with you, and escrow pays travel, meals, child care and lost wages. The pregnancy test is 9 to 11 days after transfer.
When the fertility clinic releases you, care moves to your own OB near home, and you deliver at a local hospital.
What does Colorado law mean for you as a surrogate?
Compensated gestational surrogacy is legal in Colorado under the Colorado Surrogacy Agreement Act, in force since 2021. The Act requires that you are at least 21, have given birth before, and complete medical and mental-health evaluations; that you and the intended parents each have independent counsel; and that the agreement is signed before medications. When those requirements are met, the court issues a pre-birth order naming the intended parents.
This summary is pending review by Colorado counsel.
Several of those rules protect you directly. You have your own attorney, paid by the intended parents, who answers only to you. Your mental-health evaluation is independent. Nothing medical begins until you have signed. And because the intended parents' parentage is settled before the birth, the hospital has the order on file when you deliver. The intended-parent side is on surrogacy in Colorado.
How to apply with PLS
- Take the eligibility check.
- Apply and interview with a PLS case manager.
- Send your records for Dr. Silverberg's review and physician summary.
- Complete screening, including the independent psychological evaluation.
- Match. Nancy Block runs matching herself. It averages about 6 months and depends on intended-parent demand for your state and profile.
After matching, Natalie or Jenni Symons, both former surrogates, is your case manager through delivery. Compare packages on surrogate compensation in Illinois or the national surrogate compensation page.
Sources
- PLS compensation schedule (proposed), pending confirmation by Nancy Block, RN.
- Colorado Surrogacy Agreement Act (in force 2021), Colorado General Assembly. Pending review by Colorado counsel.