Should Referrers Expect a Fee for Referrals?

To answer the question, ask yourself the following:

If you were someone looking for a job, and your friend would refuse to refer you for a good opportunity unless he/she was paid, is that person really a friend?

If you wish to be paid, does that mean in the future, if there was a great new opportunity for you, would you be happy not being referred for it if your friend/contact was not offered a fee?

If you are a recruiter, do you think someone who is referrring people to you for money is going to be as honest about how good the people he refers to you are as he would be if he was doing it voluntarily? Might that person refer people that are only 'OK' in hopes of getting a fee? Or maybe even someone who is 'not OK', in the hopes that they might land the job anyway?

How much work is there involved in referring the name, number and email of someone for an opening, vs. the work the recruiter does 40-50 hours/week, month after month, building connections, paying fees, paying for database systems, linked in subscriptions, subscriptions for databases and association fees that run into thousands of dollars, doing reference checks, counseling the candidates and clients, negotiating, scheduling interviews, etc. etc. A referral may take a minute, placing someone can take 3, 6, 9, 12 months of working with a candidate.