Why am I Paying So Much When I have the Child Nearly Half of the Time?

There are a number of factors that go into child support including things like insurance, income, percentage of time spent with parents, deductions, expenses, and the list goes on. Some states are far more complicated than other's and include a vast number of items, So many in fact that they begin to minimized the amount of weight they carry in the calculation.

For purposes of this conversation I will use Pennsylvania as an example because it is fairly simple by comparison to other states. I will also use a custodial parent who has no income and a non-custodial parent who has an income of $2000 per month. They have one child together. The non-custodial parent has 40% of the time, 146 days per year.

The intent of support is to guarantee the child will enjoy the benefits of the lifestyle of their parents. The court also wants to encourage parents to spend time with their children. The larger percentage of time you have, the less you pay.

In simple terms the amount paid is based in large portion on:

The amount of money the custodial parent makes
The amount of money the non-custodial parent makes
The percentage of time spent with each parent
Payroll deductions from each parents checks

But the question here was why do you pay so much of your income when you have the child nearly 1/2 of the time?

Using the figures I set out above the amount paid is calculated at roughly $450. Now changing the number to 182 days (1/2 of time), you would see the amount you owe drop about $50.

If you use a scenario with the same number of days (182) but this time, add minimum wage to the custodial parents income, you would find your amount drop significantly. It would drop to around $200 per month.

But now you want to know how you can make them go back to work. My advice is to file a motion asking for a work efforts order on the custodial parent and ask the court to impose minimum wage on them as they are also financially responsible for this child.

Beware though! If you force them to go back to work, you would be liable for 1/2 of daycare which could chew up any savings you might get, but it would provide more for your child so it might be worth it even if it was a wash for you, your child could benefit.

I hope this has helped you get a better understanding of how child support is calculated and maybe give you direction in how to proceed. If you use the link below you can test additional scenarios and see how widely these figures can vary and understand what you figures would be.

Here is a link to the PA calculator http://www.pennglazier.com/support2006/support.html