Child Support Estimator

No. This illustrates the general income shares approach that a majority of states base their guidelines on, but every state sets its own specific base support percentages and adjustment rules — often through detailed statutory tables that vary by combined income level and number of children rather than a single flat percentage. A meaningful number of states also use an entirely different model. Use your state's own published child support calculator or guideline worksheet for a figure that reflects your actual jurisdiction.

It's the principle, used as the foundation for guidelines in most US states, that a child should receive roughly the same proportion of parental income they would have received if both parents lived in one household — with the total obligation then split between the two parents in proportion to each one's share of combined income. It's a widely used starting concept for guideline formulas, not a single nationwide legal standard.

Guideline formulas generally increase the base share of combined income allocated to child support as more children are involved, though the increase isn't proportional per child — the marginal cost of an additional child is typically treated as smaller than the first. This calculator uses New York's statutory Child Support Standards Act percentages (17% / 25% / 29% / 31% for one through four children, 35% for five or more) as a concrete real-statute illustration of that pattern, not a national average — no national average exists, and your own state's schedule will likely differ.

Parent 1 Custody % is the custodial parent's share of time (Parent 2 is treated as the paying, non-custodial parent throughout this calculator, so the input assumes Parent 1 has at least half the time). Raising it increases Parent 2's estimated support obligation, since Parent 1 is directly covering a growing share of the child's day-to-day costs that Parent 2's own time no longer offsets. The adjustment runs from zero at a genuine 50/50 split up to the full calculated amount at 100%, so a truly even split produces no obligation under this simplified model -- real guidelines usually still order some support at 50/50 based on the income difference alone, which is one more reason to use your state's own worksheet.

It doesn't account for extraordinary medical or educational expenses, support obligations for children from other relationships, income imputed to a parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, or your specific state's statutory minimum and maximum support amounts — all factors a real court order commonly considers. This is a starting estimate for planning purposes, not a substitute for your state's official guideline calculation.