How Much Is Child Support in Pennsylvania?

It is the most searched family law question in Pennsylvania, and it is usually asked the wrong way: "If I make this much, how much child support do I pay?" The honest answer is that your income alone cannot answer it. Pennsylvania calculates child support from both parents' incomes together, and the number moves with the custody schedule, the number of children, and expenses beyond the base amount. Here is how the calculation actually works, with real numbers.

The short answer: it depends on both incomes, not just yours

Pennsylvania uses what is called the income shares model. The guidelines start from the combined monthly net income of both parents, look up the total support amount the law expects two parents at that combined income to spend on their children, and then divide that obligation between the parents in proportion to their incomes. A parent who earns 60 percent of the combined income carries 60 percent of the obligation. That is why no chart, calculator, or article can tell you your number from your paycheck alone. The other parent's income is half of the equation.

The four steps of the calculation

The guideline calculation under Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1910.16 runs in four steps:

• Step one: determine each parent's monthly net income. Net, not gross. The rules start from gross income from all sources and subtract taxes and certain mandatory deductions. Getting net income right is where many calculations go wrong, especially with self-employment, bonuses, overtime, or variable pay.
• Step two: combine the two net incomes.
• Step three: look up the basic support obligation. The schedule in Rule 1910.16-3, updated effective January 1, 2026, sets the total monthly support amount for the combined income and the number of children.
• Step four: divide it proportionally. Each parent is responsible for their percentage share of that total. The parent without primary custody pays their share to the parent with primary custody; the primary custodian is presumed to spend their share directly on the children.

A worked example with real 2026 numbers

These figures come from the guideline rule's own examples. One parent has monthly net income of $4,000; the other has monthly net income of $2,500 and primary custody of the parties' two children. Combined monthly net income is $6,500. Under the schedule, the basic child support obligation for two children at that combined income is $1,855 per month.

The higher-earning parent's income is 62 percent of the combined total, so that parent's share is $1,150 per month, paid as child support. The custodial parent's 38 percent share, about $705, is presumed to be spent directly on the children in that household. No one writes a check for the full $1,855; the payment is the paying parent's proportional slice of it.

For a sense of scale at other income levels, again drawn from the rule's own examples: at $3,500 in monthly net income, the full two-child obligation is $1,217; at $2,500 it is $877; and the one-child obligation at roughly $2,850 in monthly net income is $657. Where a payment lands between those markers depends on the exact combined income and each parent's share of it.

Why "I make $800 a week" is not enough to answer the question

Searches like "if I make $800 a week, how much child support do I pay in PA" assume the answer runs off one paycheck. It does not, for three reasons. First, $800 a week gross is not the input; the calculation runs on monthly net income after taxes. Second, the other parent's income sets your percentage share, and a swing in their income moves your payment even when yours never changes. Third, the custody schedule can adjust the result substantially. Any answer to that search that gives you a single number without asking about the other parent is guessing.

What moves the number

• Custody overnights. When the paying parent has the children for 40 percent or more of the overnights in a year, a shared custody adjustment reduces the obligation. The custody schedule and the support number are connected; changing one often changes the other.
• Additional expenses. The base number is not the whole number. Health insurance premiums for the children, work-related childcare, and certain other expenses are allocated between the parents on top of the basic obligation, in proportion to income.
• Earning capacity. A parent who is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed can be assessed at what they are capable of earning rather than what they report. Courts look past a conveniently timed income drop.
• Self-employment and variable income. Business owners, contractors, and commission earners are where the real fights happen, because the true net income is contestable. The parent who documents income accurately, theirs and the other side's, controls the calculation.
• Other support obligations. Support already being paid for children of another relationship reduces the net income used in the calculation.

Run your own estimate, then pressure-test it

The firm maintains a free Pennsylvania support estimator that applies the guideline math to the numbers you enter. It runs entirely in your browser and nothing you enter is sent anywhere. It is a genuinely useful first step, and it has the same limitation every calculator has: it can only calculate the inputs you give it. It cannot tell you whether the other parent's claimed income is accurate, whether an earning capacity argument applies, how the overnight count will actually be treated, or which additional expenses you can claim. Those inputs, not the arithmetic, are where support cases are won and lost.

If the number matters to your planning, a Strategy Session runs the calculation on your real financial picture, flags where the other side's numbers are vulnerable, and gives you a figure you can actually build decisions on. The first call is free.