It pays to have knocked up your high school girlfriend… at least if you and your baby mama were lucky enough to have been chosen to be on Teen Mom!
The Ashley can reveal that the original dads of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter are currently bringing in big bucks each time they’re featured on the MTV reality show. It’s well-known that the girls on the show have been making bank for years for airing their dirty laundry out on ‘Teen Mom,’ but the original men are also making more per episode than many people make in a year!
According to The Ashley’s behind-the-scenes sources, the original dads— i.e. Tyler Baltierra, Gary Shirley, Ryan Edwards— are pulling in about $30,000- $35,000 per episode they’re featured on. (The salaries of the dads/boyfriends who haven’t been featured on ‘Teen Mom’ since the beginning, such as Zach Davis and Sean Austin, are less, due to them not putting in nearly as many seasons as the original OG dads.)
“The original guys are making basically what the original top girls make,” a production source says. “The money is so good that [the guys] are willing to associate with their baby mamas much more than they normally would, at least for the cameras.”
As The Ashley has previously reported, the cast— moms and dads— are only paid if they are featured on an episode in some way. (This does not mean they have to physically be in an episode. They are paid–in some form– even if they are featured via a phone call or FaceTime call.)
“It’s an incredibly expensive show [to make] now,” the production source said, adding that the cast salaries may vary if they’re appearing on one of the ‘Teen Mom’ spin-offs. “This is just for the main show.”
The production source also revealed that girls who are not married fight for their new man to be contracted as a “boyfriend,” as it pays much more than the guy would get via a basic appearance fee.
The super-sized paychecks do not have taxes taken out, as the guys (and girls) are not employees of Viacom/Paramount. This is likely why so many ‘Teen Mom’ stars have had tax troubles over the years. (As The Ashley previously reported, Maci Bookout and her husband Taylor McKinney currently have over $400,000 in tax debt to pay. In March, original Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer was hit with new tax liens, bringing her tax debt total to more than $500,000.)
“They are 1099 [workers],” the production source said. “It’s up to them to pay their quarterly estimated taxes, which obviously is something a lot of them don’t do.”
