Glossary

Income shares model

The child support model most states use: estimate what both parents together would have spent on the child, then split it in proportion to their incomes.

An income shares guideline starts from a published table giving a basic support obligation for each combined parental income level and number of children, built from economic research on household spending on children. The combined obligation is then divided between the parents in proportion to each one's share of their combined income. A parent earning sixty percent of the household total is responsible for sixty percent of the figure. Add-ons such as health insurance premiums and childcare are usually apportioned the same way, on top of the basic amount. Because the table is published at fixed income increments, a worksheet interpolates between rows. Above the top row the table simply stops and a court has discretion — which is a different thing from the table continuing in a straight line.

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