Maine Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ gross income (pay before taxes) and the number of children. With one child and gross pay of $3,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays about $516 a month when the child lives mainly with the other parent. Child care and health insurance costs are added on top.

Maine sets support by the week; the table shows it as monthly amounts (52 weeks ÷ 12 months). At the lowest pay, the low-income rules leave the paying parent enough to live on, so support barely changes with more children. With substantially equal care, the calculator above uses Maine’s equal care formula instead. The official Maine child support table (FM-084) lists the weekly amount per child for both parents together, by their combined yearly income from $16,800 to $400,000.

Maine uses an income shares formula. It adds both parents’ yearly gross incomes, finds the closest income in the state’s table, and multiplies the weekly amount per child by the number of children. Each parent pays a share based on their part of the income.

The rules are in 19-A M.R.S. §2006:

1. Find each parent’s yearly gross income from all sources, minus support they pay under an earlier order. Child support received and public assistance don’t count.
2. Add the two incomes and find the closest income in the table.
3. Multiply the weekly amount per child by the number of children.
4. Add child care, health insurance, and ongoing medical costs.
5. Split the total by each parent’s share of the income. The parent the children don’t mainly live with pays their share each week.

Example

One parent earns $3,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $60,000 a year. The table amount for one child at that income is $199 a week. The higher earner has 60% of the income, so with the child living mostly with the other parent, they pay $119 a week, about $516 a month.

Only when a judge finds the parents provide substantially equal care, meaning they share the children’s care about equally. Otherwise, more parenting time doesn’t change Maine’s formula. With one child and gross pay of $3,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays about $516 a month when the child lives mainly with the other parent and about $260 with substantially equal care.

• Substantially equal care: both parents take part about equally in the children’s care, including their home life, school, activities, child care, and health care, under 19-A M.R.S. §2001(8-A). Time alone doesn’t decide it.
• Different incomes: Maine raises the support amount by half to cover two homes and splits it by each parent’s share of the income. The higher earner pays the difference between the two shares, or the regular amount if that is lower.
• Equal incomes: neither parent pays basic support, and the parents split child care and health costs equally.

See 19-A M.R.S. §2006(5)(D) and (D-1). The calculator above uses the equal care formula at exactly half the time.

Child care costs for children under 12 are added to the basic support and split by each parent’s share of the income.

With substantially equal care, the parents split child care by each parent’s share of the income, or equally if their incomes are equal. See 19-A M.R.S. §2006(3) and (5). The official calculator includes child care.

The order must require private health insurance for the children when it is available at a reasonable cost. The cost of insuring the children is added to the basic support and split by each parent’s share of the income.

• Cost counted: the cost of adding the children to existing coverage, or the difference between self-only and family coverage.
• Ongoing medical costs: costs for a permanent, long-term, or recurring condition are also added and split by each parent’s share of the income.

See 19-A M.R.S. §2006(3) and (8)(H). The official calculator includes these costs.

If the children live with you and you get TANF (cash assistance), you have to help the child support program get support from the other parent, for example by naming them. The support collected pays the state back for your TANF, except the first $50 a month, which comes to your family. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t have this rule in Maine.

• What you keep: the first $50 a month of support collected, per family, and it doesn’t lower your TANF benefit, under 22 M.R.S. §3762.
• Food stamps (SNAP): USDA lists Maine as a state that doesn’t require help with child support for SNAP.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, you can ask DHHS to excuse you. The Maine child support guide covers working with the child support program.

If the paying parent earns less than $16,800 a year (the lowest income in Maine’s table), support is 10% of their weekly gross income. If they earn a little more, they pay a lower amount from the table’s shaded rows, based on their own income only, so they keep enough to live on.

• Under $16,800 a year: 10% of weekly gross income, rounded down, under 19-A M.R.S. §2006(5)(C). The law ties this rule to the federal poverty guideline for one person ($15,960 a year in 2026). Maine’s table and the DHHS worksheet calculator apply it to any income under $16,800, the table’s first row, and so does the calculator above.
• A little more income: the shaded part of the table (Maine’s self-support reserve, the income a paying parent keeps to live on) covers paying parents earning less than $21,000 a year with one child and less than $40,200 with six. They pay the table amount for their own income alone.
• Lower of the two: the law says a parent pays the low-income amount only when it is lower than their regular share. The DHHS worksheet calculator, and the calculator above, use the low-income amount even when the regular share is lower, so a judge could order less in those cases.
• Earning less by choice: a judge can count what a parent could earn. A parent caring for a child under 2 at home usually isn’t expected to work. A parent in jail or prison is treated as able to earn only what work there pays, under 19-A M.R.S. §2001(5)(D).

No. When the parents earn more than $400,000 a year together, the table doesn’t apply. Support can’t be less than the table amount for $400,000 ($620 a week for one child).

The judge decides how much more to order on the income above $400,000, under 19-A M.R.S. §2006(5)(B).

Yes. The judge must find in writing that the standard amount from the guidelines would be unfair, for one of the reasons Maine law lists.

Reasons include more than six children, the children’s own money, a parent’s money and needs, the children’s physical, emotional, and educational needs, and a case where the equal care formula would be unfair. See 19-A M.R.S. §2007.

Ask the court to change it by filing a motion to modify, or ask the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for a review if it handles your case. Keep following the current order until it changes.

• When: if the guidelines now give an amount more than 15% different from the order, that counts as a big enough change. After three years, a judge can review the order even if nothing has changed, under 19-A M.R.S. §2009.
• From when: a new amount can start only from the date the other parent was formally given the motion (served).
• Through DHHS: DHHS tells parents in its cases at least every three years that they can ask for a review, under 19-A M.R.S. §2157.

Maine Courts’ child support page has the forms. The Maine child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. Maine DHHS’s Child Support Worksheet calculator fills in the state’s Child Support Worksheet. It doesn’t handle substantially equal care, which uses a separate worksheet.

Use the Child Support Worksheet calculator for the Child Support Worksheet (FM-040). With substantially equal care, courts also use the Supplemental Child Support Worksheet (FM-040-A).