The Bachelor's Chris Soules Agrees to Pay $2.5 Million to Man's Family After Fatal Car Crash: Report Kenneth Mosher, a 66-year-old war veteran, lost his life in the accident. Bachelor Nation’s Luke Parker Ordered to Pay Producers $100,000 for Breaching Contract The Bachelorette contestant Luke Parker must pay $100,000 to the company behind the hit ABC reality dating. Methodology for Finding the Best Bachelor Degrees for the Money. The following salaries are based on starting and mid-career median pay, as concluded by PayScale after polling holders of bachelor degrees with 10+ years experience in their field. Petroleum Engineering. Median Mid-Career Salary: $176,900.

Bachelor Payout

Now that The Bachelor's Arie-Lauren-Becca love triangle is all said and done, I have some questions about how everything went down. Obviously, I want to know what ABC was thinking when they chose to air that super uncomfortable footage of Arie and Becca's breakup, but even more so, I'm curious what Lauren B. got out of her 10 weeks on the show. Sure, she received an engagement ring from Arie during the After the Final Rose special, but what about a salary for her time in the mansion? Do Bachelor contestants get paid? My curiosity about Lauren B. sent me digging for answers, and what I found was actually kind of upsetting.

In short, the answer is no. Contestants on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette don't get paid anything for their time on the show, but I guess if you win, you have a small chance of finding love? Out of 35 total seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, only six couples are still together. With those slim odds, I'm going to say that putting your life on hiatus for no salary is probably not a great financial decision. But appearing for free isn't even the worst of it — in fact, many contestants on The Bachelor actively pay to be on the show.

Many Bachelor contestants actually go into debt trying to compete for a final rose. In order to appear on the show, you have to agree to take time off from work (which very well may be unpaid), give up your phone, and say goodbye to your family and friends for what could be as long as eight or nine weeks. According to Mic, contestants are required to provide most of their own outfits, and the bill quickly adds up when you have to buy a new suit or floor-length dress for every elimination ceremony. Apparently, ABC only 'provides dresses for the two finalists in the finale episode' of The Bachelor, and blogger Dana Weiss told Mic that 'even though she might get sent home after the first rose ceremony, a contestant must pack enough TV-ready outfits to last the whole competition.' The Bachelor franchise loves switching things up and going on trips, so that means contestants must pack clothes for both warm and cold climates — after all, you never know where ABC will take you next.

For both male and female contestants, the burdens of creating your own wardrobe can wreak havoc on your finances. In 2016, former contestant Jillian Harris discussed the harsh truth of being on The Bachelorin a blog post:

The girls do have to bring all of their own clothing and of course, they want to be wearing the best clothes EVER to be seen on TV in!!! I had re-mortgaged my house and I spent something like $8,000 on clothing (which is still a lot)… but now that designer labels are even more important, I can see how someone can spend [$40,000]… easily!!!!!

Refinancing a home is no joke, especially when there's no guarantee that you'll be making enough money to pay off your mortgage in the future.

Do Bachelor Winners Get Money

For some contestants, the realities of being on a top-rated TV show — all of America knows your business, you have no control over how you're portrayed by producers — make it difficult to sustain a career post-Bachelor. Former investment banker and The Bachelorette Season 11 contestant JJ Lane told MarketWatch that he had trouble finding a job once he returned from filming (he was unemployed when he went on the show). 'I didn’t understand the magnitude of the show and how hard it is to get a real job right after,' Lane said. 'Everyone knows who you are and employers see it as a distraction.'

All this being said, it seems slightly ridiculous that ABC won't pay contestants even a little for appearing on The Bachelor. These men and women are giving up their lives to appear on the show. And considering that the star of The Bachelor or Bachelorette makes around $100,000 per season, paying contestants even a fraction of that would help make their lives much easier.

Or, at the very least, pay for their freaking outfits.

How Much Money Do You Get If You Win The Bachelor

It has been over two years since Soules rear-ended Mosher on a tractor in his home-state of Iowa. According to recordings, Soules called 911 and reported that Mosher still had a pulse. However, when authorities arrive on the scene, Soules had already fled to his nearby home, where he was later arrested. Mosher was pronounced dead at the hospital.

According to Soules' current attorney, Alfredo Parrish, the star is still deeply afflicted by the accident. 'It's pretty stressful for him. He knew the Moshers. He knows the gentleman who died. He's been pretty stressed out by this whole thing, and he was clearly stressed out. We spent a lot of time talking these last few days. This hearing is a big deal, anytime you have a sentencing where people are not part of the criminal justice system, it's a big deal,' he says in a group interview captured by the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. 'He's been pretty stressed out by this whole thing, and he was clearly stressed out.'

E! News has reached out to Soules' attorney for comment.