How New Jersey calculates child support
New Jersey uses an income shares model set out in the Rules of Court, Appendix IX. Appendix IX-B gives the line instructions, IX-C and IX-D are the sole and shared parenting worksheets, and IX-F is the schedule. Everything is calculated in weekly amounts: monthly figures are divided by 4.3 and yearly figures by 52. Dollars are rounded to the whole dollar and percentages to two decimals at each line.
Net income of each parent
The worksheet starts from gross taxable income and subtracts mandatory retirement contributions, income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory union dues, and support already ordered for other children. Non-taxable income is added back, and so is a government benefit paid for the child because of a parent's work record. Voluntary retirement savings are not deducted. Each parent's share of the combined net income is that parent's share of the support.
The basic amount from the schedule
Appendix IX-F lists combined weekly net incomes from $180 to $3,600 in $10 steps, for one to six children. Income between two rows goes to the higher row from a $5 remainder, so $446 uses the $450 row and $444 uses $440. The amount covers ordinary spending on the children, including the first $250 a year per child of uninsured medical costs.
| Combined net income per week | 1 child | 2 children | 3 children |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | $172 | $224 | $248 |
| $1,000 | $293 | $339 | $390 |
| $1,500 | $369 | $420 | $499 |
| $2,000 | $425 | $481 | $589 |
| $3,000 | $561 | $605 | $769 |
| $3,600 | $717 | $719 | $917 |
Below $180 a week of combined income there is no table amount: the court sets a fixed order between $5 and the $180 row. Above $3,600 a week ($187,200 a year), the $3,600 row is the minimum, and the court adds a discretionary amount under N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23 without extending the table.
Add child care and health insurance
Work-related child care for children under 13, or for a child of any age with a physical or mental disability, is added at its net cost, after the federal child care tax credit and, for a parent who lives in New Jersey, the state child care credit, using the worksheet in Appendix IX-E. One row of the federal credit table (adjusted gross income of $31,001 to $33,000, two or more children) prints a maximum credit of $2,490 where the rule of every other row gives $2,460; the calculator uses the printed figure and shows the other result too. The cost of adding the children to a health insurance policy is added too, along with recurring uninsured medical costs above $250 per child a year and extraordinary expenses the court approves. Each parent owes an income share of the total, and the paying parent gets credit for whatever of these costs that parent pays directly.
Sole parenting: credit for parenting time
When the other parent has the children for less than two overnights a week, the sole parenting worksheet applies. The court may reduce the award for the variable costs, such as food and transportation, that the parent pays during regular parenting time. The maximum credit is the basic amount times that parent's share of overnights times 37%. It is not presumptive when the other household's income plus the reduced award stays under twice the poverty guideline.
Shared parenting from 28% of overnights
The shared parenting worksheet can be used when the parent of alternate residence has the children at least 28% of regular overnights, about two nights a week, under a parenting plan and with separate living space for them. The share is each parent's overnights divided by the total. The total is normally 365, but predictable, recurring nights with someone else, such as grandparents, are taken off the total and off the parent who would otherwise have had them, so neither parent is credited with that time; nights at summer camp or other overnight care count for the parent who pays for it. The worksheet adds that parent's housing costs to the basic amount, assumed to be 38% of it multiplied by twice that parent's share of overnights, then subtracts the variable costs that parent carries. If the result is negative, the parent with the children most nights pays. A shared award is never automatic: if it would leave the primary household under twice the poverty guideline, counting that parent's income from all sources, including means-tested benefits such as TANF that are not income for the support shares, from $832 a week for two people to $2,143 for eight, the sole parenting worksheet is used instead (Appendix IX-A, paragraph 14).
The self-support reserve
The self-support reserve is $460 a week, 150% of the federal poverty guideline for one person as of January 2026. The self-support reserve may reduce the order, subject to the receiving parent's circumstances and a fixed support award. If support would leave the paying parent with less than the reserve, the court reviews that parent's income and living expenses to set the most that can reasonably be ordered; the calculator shows the order limited to net income minus $460. No reduction is made if the receiving parent's income minus that parent's own share is also under the reserve. In every case the court orders a fixed amount, normally between $5 a week and the amount at the bottom of the schedule (Appendix IX-A, paragraph 20(a)).
What else the court considers
Other children of either parent are handled by averaging two worksheets, with and without a deduction for them. Alimony decided at the same time is set first and moved from one income to the other. When each parent has at least one of the children, two sole awards are calculated and subtracted. The guidelines also provide an upward adjustment when the first order is entered for a child aged 12 or older. A court may depart from the guidelines for good cause, such as when applying them would cause an injustice, and records the reason on the worksheet.