How much does a first-time surrogate earn in Minnesota?
A first-time gestational surrogate in Minnesota matched through Private Label Surrogacy receives a typical total package of roughly $68,000 to $78,000. That total is built on $60,000 base compensation (proposed, up from $55,000). If you have completed a surrogacy before, your base is $65,000 to $70,000.
The total comes first on this page because it is the number that reaches you. Base compensation is the largest piece, but allowances and milestone payments sit on top of it. Every PLS figure here is pending final confirmation by Nancy Block, RN, and is marked that way until she confirms it.
Living in Minnesota does not raise or lower your package. PLS pays the same base in every state where it recruits, so a surrogate anywhere in Minnesota sees the same figure as one in Chicago. Two things do change with your state: the legal path the intended parents' attorney follows, and where you go for monitoring appointments.
I am Natalie Gaudio-Fricano, a PLS case manager. Before I worked here I was a three-time egg donor and then a gestational surrogate. I delivered a boy for an international couple in October 2016 after our first transfer worked, and I have worked in medicine since 2002.
What is in the full compensation package?
"Typical" here means one baby and the usual allowances and milestone payments. Your own total moves with the length of your journey, whether you pump after delivery, and the lost wages you document.
| What you receive | Amount | What triggers it | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base compensation, first journey | $60,000 (proposed) | Pregnancy confirmed with a heartbeat | Installments through the pregnancy |
| Base compensation, experienced | $65,000 to $70,000 | Pregnancy confirmed with a heartbeat | Installments through the pregnancy |
| Monthly allowance | $300 per month | Signing your agreement | Each month |
| Medication start | $500 | First injectable medication | When you start |
| Transfer fee | $1,000 | Each embryo transfer | At transfer |
| Maternity clothing | $750; $1,000 if carrying multiples | Confirmed pregnancy | One payment |
| Housekeeping | $90 per week | Reaching 32 weeks | Weekly to delivery |
| Pumping support | $200 per week | Choosing to pump breast milk after delivery | Weekly |
| Twins | $5,000 added to base | Twin pregnancy confirmed | With base installments |
| Triplets | $10,000 added to base | Triplet pregnancy confirmed | With base installments |
| Lost wages, you and your partner | Your actual documented wages | Time off for the journey | As incurred |
| Life insurance | Extended policy up to $750,000 | In place before transfer | Premium paid by the intended parents |
Payment triggers and timing: confirm schedule with Nancy.
Travel is not part of compensation. It is reimbursed on top of it. For a Minnesota surrogate that matters, because the intended parents' clinic is often out of state. The intended parents pay, from escrow, your flights, hotel, meals, mileage, child care, and lost wages for you and a companion.
Some of the package is support rather than money. Mental-health support comes from independent licensed professionals. Julie Bendix, MPH, RD, LD, CLC, a registered dietitian and lactation counselor, meets with you for at least six nutrition consults. The intended parents pay for your own attorney. If your health plan excludes surrogacy, they buy a separate policy for you.
When is each payment made and who holds the money?
Payments follow the medical calendar. Here is the order:
- When you sign: the $300 monthly allowance starts.
- When medications start: $500.
- At each transfer: $1,000.
- Once a heartbeat is confirmed: base compensation begins, paid in installments.
- At 32 weeks: $90 a week for housekeeping.
- After delivery: the final base installment, plus $200 a week if you pump.
If a transfer does not result in a pregnancy, you keep the allowance already paid, the medication-start payment and the transfer fee. Base compensation depends on a confirmed pregnancy.
PLS never holds your money. The intended parents fund an independent licensed escrow agent: $10,000 when you match, and the full balance before your medications start. The escrow agent pays you under the terms of your agreement. Ask your attorney to confirm the account is funded before you take a single injection.
That rule protects you from failures you cannot see from the outside. 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, who were stranded when their agencies failed. Read how escrow works for the details.
What are the requirements to become a surrogate in Minnesota?
PLS uses the same criteria in Minnesota as everywhere else. You need to be:
- Between 21 and 43
- A US citizen or permanent resident
- At a BMI under 33
- A mother of at least one child from a healthy full-term pregnancy, raising a child now
- A non-smoker
- Not on government assistance
- Living in a stable home
- Not currently taking antidepressants
Then come seven screening steps: application, interview, a records review, a background check, an insurance review, a psychological evaluation by an independent licensed professional, and medical screening at the intended parents' clinic. Mark Silverberg, DDS, MD, reads your prenatal and delivery records himself and writes the physician medical summary your clinic receives. Expect screening to take several weeks once your records arrive.
Where do Minnesota surrogates do monitoring and transfer?
Minnesota surrogates matched through PLS do their monitoring at a clinic in the Twin Cities. Which clinics PLS uses there is being confirmed. Monitoring is the bloodwork and ultrasounds before transfer and in early pregnancy. The intended parents pay for those visits.
For medical screening and the transfer, you fly to the intended parents' fertility clinic. A companion can come with you. Flights, hotel, meals, child care and lost wages are paid from escrow, so you are not fronting costs. The pregnancy test comes 9 to 11 days after transfer.
After the fertility clinic releases you, you see your own OB near home and deliver at a local hospital.
What does Minnesota law mean for you as a surrogate?
Gestational surrogacy is legal and practiced in Minnesota, and compensation is permitted. Minnesota has no surrogacy statute. Courts decide parentage case by case; many counties grant a pre-birth order naming the intended parents, and others issue the order after the birth.
This summary is pending review by Minnesota counsel.
For you, the practical result is simple. The intended parents' attorney handles the parentage filing. Your own attorney, paid by the intended parents and answering only to you, reviews your agreement before anything medical starts. Ask that attorney whether the order in your county is likely to come before or after the birth, so you know what to expect at the hospital. The intended-parent side is on surrogacy in Minnesota.
How to apply with PLS
- Take the eligibility check to see whether you meet the criteria above.
- Apply and interview with a PLS case manager.
- Send your records so Dr. Silverberg can write your physician summary.
- Complete screening: background check, insurance review and the independent psychological evaluation.
- Match. Nancy Block runs matching herself. Matching averages about 6 months and depends on intended-parent demand for your state and your profile.
After you match, Jenni Symons or I stay with you through delivery. We have both carried for other families. Compare the package on surrogate compensation in Illinois or the national surrogate compensation page.
Sources
- PLS compensation schedule (proposed), pending confirmation by Nancy Block, RN.
- Minnesota court practice on parentage in gestational surrogacy; no Minnesota surrogacy statute. Pending review by Minnesota counsel.