Pay Your Characters

Does your story need all the characters you have crammed in ?

The reader can get confused and bogged down by too many secondary and minor characters. How can you as the writer slim the character field? 
Adrienne's idea is -

Pay Them

You have a limited budget- maybe £100,000

List all your characters and pay them according to- 
-how many scenes they are in, 
-their contribution to conflict and resolution. 
-their contribution to the overall plot.
-their contribution to the main character's development.
-how proactive they are.

Don't spend too much time doing this, but be fair- do not give more to a character because you like them.

Have you overspent? Who can you cut?
Can you incorporate two characters together if they have minor roles?

You may have a character you love, they are funny, quirky, smart, sexy- but they are not pulling their weight- sorry it's time to kill a darling. Cut them out- you can use them in another story.

I do not have  a huge number of  characters in The Finder, but this exercise helped me to focus on the secondary and minor  roles. I have not cut anyone, but I will be increasing one character's role and appearance.

When you have tried this let me know what you think? Does it work for you? Is there another way to reduce the number of characters?