Although they haven't confirmed (or denied) it yet, it's been reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are using a pregnancy surrogate to carry their third child. According to TMZ, the baby, a girl, is due sometime in late January. And it's not that Kardashian is too busy or vain to carry a child—she has a condition called placenta accreta which makes having another child too dangerous.

It was also reported that the woman carrying the child is getting paid 45,000, in monthly installments of $4,500. I don't know about you, but honestly, $45,000 to carry and deliver a baby for what has to be one of the wealthiest celebrity couples doesn't sound like much to me. Kim Kardashian probably drops $4,500 at Starbucks in a month. Why isn't the surrogate making the big (it's all relative) bucks?

To find out exactly that, The Cut spoke to two surrogacy experts: Teo Martinez, the CEO of the surrogacy agency Growing Generations, and Stephanie Caballero, an attorney who founded the Surrogacy Law Center.

Caballero said that what Kim and Kanye's surrogate is making is a standard fee for an experienced surrogate. She explained, "You don’t get more to carry a celebrity’s child. That is actually the going rate. She may be a second-time surrogate; usually a first-time surrogate is about $30,000 to $35,000.”

She continued,

Here’s the thing. If you pay a surrogate, let’s say who’s giving birth for Kim and Kanye, $100,000, that looks like coercion. I mean anybody, you would raise your hand and say, "Sure, six figures? I’ll carry your baby!" And you don’t want somebody to come forward like that. You want a woman who has raised her hand and said, "This is something that I want to do. I have uneventful pregnancies; I love being pregnant. I want to help somebody and give them a baby.”

However, the base fee of $35,000 to $45,000 doesn't include the extra benefits that some celeb surrogates get. Caballero explained,

If [Kardashian’s surrogate] wants pregnancy massages, she gets that. She’ll probably have, knowing Kim, who’s very healthy with her body right now, she’ll probably have a nutritionist, she may have food service, all organic food. She may even have a chef. She may have a personal trainer come to her house. So she may have all those other perks.

Surrogates can also make additional money for moving close to the clients, Martinez said. Celebrity clients can afford to pay the surrogate to relocate during the last weeks or months of her pregnancy, including her travel, housing expenses, their family if need be, and maybe even a bonus on top of that.

So, if you like the work, it's not a bad gig at all!

Kim and Kanye's surrogate is only making $45K? Here's why celeb surrogates don't make celeb salaries.