Nebraska Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ monthly net income (income after taxes and a few other deductions), the number of children, and parenting time. If you earn $1,000 a week before taxes, your one child lives mostly with the other parent, and that parent earns $3,000 a month before taxes, you would pay about $552 a month, or $788 for two children. Child care and the children’s health insurance premium are added on top.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12) and subtract estimated 2026 income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare, as the calculator above does: the paying parent files single, and the parent the children live with files as head of household. The amounts assume no retirement, health insurance, or other-children deductions. In the first row, the low-income limits explained below keep the amount the same for any number of children. Nebraska’s own table, which lists support for both parents together by net income, is Table 1 of the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines.

Nebraska uses an income shares formula: it adds both parents’ monthly net incomes, looks up the support amount in Table 1, and has each parent pay their share of it.

The steps are in the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines and Worksheet 1:

1. Find each parent’s net income. Start with income from all sources, leaving out public assistance based on financial need and the earned income tax credit (§ 4-204). Subtract income taxes figured with the standard deduction, Social Security and Medicare, required retirement contributions, support for other children, and the parent’s own health insurance (§ 4-205).
2. Add the two net incomes.
3. Look up Table 1 for that combined income and the number of children. The table runs from $500 to $20,000 a month.
4. Split it by income share. A parent with 60% of the combined income owes 60%.
5. Add the children’s health insurance premium, split the same way, and add child care.
6. Use Worksheet 3 if the order gives joint physical custody and each parent has more than 142 days a year. A judge can also use it from 109 to 142 days.
7. Check the low-income limits: the $1,330 a month the paying parent keeps, and the minimum order.

Example

One parent has net income of $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. Table 1 for one child at that income is $952. The higher earner has two thirds of the income, so with the child living mostly with the other parent, they pay about $635 a month.

Yes, if the court orders joint physical custody. When each parent has the children more than 142 days a year (about 39%), support is figured on a joint custody worksheet. From 109 to 142 days, a judge can choose to use that worksheet. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $549 a month when they have up to 108 days, $549 or (if the judge chooses) about $401 at 120 days, about $320 at 143, and $193 at equal time.

Worksheet 3 multiplies the Table 1 amount by 1.5, works out what each parent owes for the days the children spend with the other parent, and has the parent who owes more pay the difference.

• What counts as a day: usually a day that includes an overnight.
• Without a joint physical custody order: Worksheet 3 doesn’t apply. A judge can lower support by up to 80% for any stretch when the paying parent has the children 28 days or more out of 90.

See § 4-212 and § 4-210 of the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines.

Child care a parent needs in order to work, or to get training or schooling for a job or better pay, is added to the Table 1 amount. The judge sets the paying parent’s part, which can’t be more than their share of the combined income.

The federal child care tax credit is subtracted from the cost first. A judge can assume a parent gets the credit if their gross income is over $2,600 a month for one child (more for more children), under § 4-214 of the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines.

Every Nebraska order must say how the children’s health care is covered. The cost of adding the children to a plan is split by each parent’s share of income, and the parent who pays the premium gets credit for it. Medical bills insurance doesn’t pay, above $250 per child a year, are split too.

• Premiums: the added cost of covering the children is added to Table 1 and split by income share. The parent who pays it gets credit.
• Uncovered bills: Table 1 already includes the first $250 per child a year. The judge splits the rest, and the paying parent’s part can’t be more than their share of income.
• Cases with the state child support program: coverage counts as affordable if it costs no more than 5% of the parent’s gross income. A parent can’t be ordered to pay cash toward medical costs if it would leave them under $1,330 a month.

See § 4-215 of the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines.

If the children live with you and you get Aid to Dependent Children (ADC, Nebraska’s cash assistance program), you have to help the state get child support from the other parent, for example by naming them and going to paternity tests and court dates. The state keeps the support it collects. To get food stamps (SNAP), both parents of a child under 18 also have to help with child support, unless they have a good reason, such as a risk of violence.

• ADC: a parent who doesn’t help without a good reason has the cash grant cut by 25%, under 468 NAC 2-011.
• Support kept by the state: today the state keeps the support it collects while you get ADC. From July 1, 2027, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-512.07 passes up to $100 a month for one child or $200 for two or more on to the family, without lowering ADC.
• Food stamps (SNAP): only the parent who refuses to help loses benefits, under 475 NAC 3-004.
• Benefits aren’t income for support: public assistance and the earned income tax credit aren’t counted, under § 4-204.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, you can ask to be excused (Nebraska calls this “good cause”). The Nebraska child support guide has more on benefits and child support.

Support can’t leave the paying parent with less than $1,330 a month in net income in 2026. The paying parent still owes a minimum of $50 or 10% of their net income, whichever is more.

• Amount the paying parent keeps: with one child, a paying parent with net income of $1,500 a month, whose children’s other parent has $4,500, would owe $238. The limit lowers that to $170, under § 4-218 (Nebraska calls it the basic subsistence limitation). The $1,330 figure is the federal poverty guideline for one person and changes each year.
• Minimum order: with net income of $1,000 a month, the limit would leave nothing to pay, so the minimum of 10% of their net income applies: $100. A judge can order less for a parent with a disability or in jail, under § 4-209.
• Earning less by choice: a judge can base support on what a parent could earn, looking at their work history, skills, health, and local jobs. Time in jail isn’t treated as choosing not to work, under § 4-204.

No. Table 1 ends at $20,000 a month in combined net income. Above that, a judge decides how much more to order, and support can’t be less than the amount at $20,000.

To help the judge, the rule suggests adding 10% of the income above $20,000 for one to three children, 12% for four, 13% for five, and 14% for six. At $30,000 combined and one child, that is $2,282 plus $1,000, or $3,282 in total, before it is split between the parents. The calculator above uses this suggestion. See § 4-203(C) of the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines.

Yes. A judge can order a different amount. The judge has to write down what the guideline amount would have been and why the order is different.

Reasons the rule lists are unusually high medical costs for a parent or child, a disabled child’s special needs, combined income above $20,000, children in foster care, and any case where the guideline amount would be unfair. A judge also checks any amount the parents agree on against the guidelines. Long-distance travel costs for parenting time can also justify a different amount (§ 4-210).

See § 4-203 of the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines.

Ask the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to review your order, or file a Complaint for Modification of Child Support in district court. Keep following the current order until it changes.

• When: a court usually treats a change as big enough when the guidelines would raise or lower support by at least 10% and at least $25, because of a change in finances that has lasted three months and is expected to last six more (§ 4-217).
• Through DHHS: if you have a child support case, either parent can request a review. DHHS reviews an order after three years, or sooner after a lasting change in income, and starts one itself when a paying parent will be in jail more than 180 days (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 43-512.12).
• Through the court: file a Complaint for Modification of Child Support (form DC 6:14.4 to decrease, DC 6:14.5 to increase) with the clerk of the district court that entered the order. The Judicial Branch modification page has the forms.

The Nebraska child support guide walks through each step.

No. Nebraska courts use Worksheet 1 (Basic Net Income and Support Calculation) with Table 1, and Worksheet 3 for joint physical custody.

If your case goes to court, bring a completed Worksheet 1: Basic Net Income and Support Calculation, and Worksheet 3 if it applies. The Judicial Branch’s child support self-help page also links a private company’s calculator that parents without a lawyer can use free for a limited time.