Ohio Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ income before taxes, the number of children, and parenting time. If you earn $1,000 a week, your one child lives mostly with the other parent, and that parent earns $3,000 a month, you would pay about $638 a month, or $927 for two children. These amounts include the cash medical support every Ohio order adds. Child care costs are added when a parent pays them.

To build the table, we convert weekly pay to monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12). In the lower rows, amounts rise only a little with more children because of a limit based on the paying parent’s own income: Ohio never charges more than the schedule amount for that parent’s income alone (see the low-income section below), so most of the rise there is cash medical support. With a court order giving the paying parent 90 or more overnights a year, Ohio takes 10% off these amounts, except the cash medical support.

The calculator above and this table include cash medical support, which every Ohio order adds: $510.21 per child per year, split by each parent’s share of the income. For a paying parent with two thirds of the income, that is about $28 a month for one child, $57 for two, and $85 for three. Ohio’s own schedule lists yearly support for both parents together; it is the Ohio Basic Child Support Guideline Schedule (JFS 07767), set under section 3119.021 of the Ohio Revised Code.

Ohio uses an income shares formula. It adds both parents’ yearly incomes before taxes and looks up what the state’s schedule says children cost at that income. Each parent pays a share that matches their share of the income. A parent with a low income never pays more than the schedule amount for their own income alone.

The rules are in section 3119.05 of the Ohio Revised Code:

1. Find each parent’s yearly gross income. That is income before taxes from almost every source, including wages, self-employment profit, Social Security, and unemployment, under section 3119.01. SSI, Ohio Works First, SNAP, and a new spouse’s income don’t count. Overtime, commissions, and bonuses count at the lower of last year’s total or a three-year average, under section 3119.05(D).
2. Subtract the adjustments: a credit for other children the parent supports, what the parent pays for the children’s health insurance, and spousal support the parent pays.
3. Add the two incomes and look up the schedule amount for that combined income and the number of children. The schedule runs from $8,400 to $336,000 a year.
4. Split it by income share. A parent with 60% of the combined income owes 60%, or the schedule amount for their own income alone if that is lower.
5. Take off 10% if the paying parent has court-ordered parenting time of 90 or more overnights a year.
6. Add child care and cash medical support, split by income share.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month before taxes and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $72,000 a year. The schedule amount for one child at that income is $11,348 a year. The higher earner has 66.67% of the income, so their share is $7,566 a year, less than the $8,154 for their own income alone. With the child living mostly with the other parent and fewer than 90 overnights, they pay about $659 a month. That includes about $28 a month in cash medical support.

Yes, starting at 90 overnights a year (about 25% of the time). Court-ordered parenting time of 90 or more overnights takes 10% off, and the judge must consider lowering it more. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $659 a month with fewer than 90 overnights and about $596 from 90 overnights through equal time, unless the judge lowers it more.

The 10% reduction needs a court order giving the paying parent at least 90 overnights a year (about 7.4 a month in the calculator above), under section 3119.051. A court can take it away if that parent doesn’t use the time. Above 90 overnights the judge must also consider a further reduction, and at 147 or more a judge who doesn’t grant one must explain why in the order, under section 3119.231.

Ohio has no separate formula for equal time. The court decides which parent pays and can order a different amount. The calculator above assumes the higher earner pays. With equal pay too, it says a judge decides who pays and how much.

Child care a parent needs to work or train for a job is split by each parent’s share of income, after subtracting child care tax credits and up to a yearly limit for each child’s age. The parent who pays the provider gets credit for what they already pay.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month after tax credits and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. If the other parent pays the provider, that $400 is added to what you pay them. A paying parent in the schedule’s low-income range pays no more than half. The rules are in section 3119.05(P) of the Ohio Revised Code, and the yearly limits by age (from $8,780 for a school-age child to $16,116 for an infant) are in Table 2 of the Ohio Child Support Guideline Manual (JFS 07766).

Every Ohio order says who covers the children’s health care, and the parent who receives support is expected to provide the insurance unless a judge finds otherwise. Every order also adds cash medical support of $510.21 per child per year, split by income share, toward copays, deductibles, and other costs insurance doesn’t pay.

• Who provides insurance: the paying parent can be ordered to instead if they already have coverage for the children or can get it at a reasonable cost, under section 3119.30. Reasonable cost means no more than 5% of that parent’s yearly income, under section 3119.29.
• Premiums: the parent who pays the children’s premiums subtracts their out-of-pocket cost, less any premium tax credit, from their income before support is calculated.
• Cash medical support: $510.21 per child per year (about $43 a month for both parents together) is the amount in Table 3 of the Ohio Child Support Guideline Manual. The paying parent’s share goes to the other parent, or to the Ohio Department of Medicaid while the state holds the children’s medical support rights, under section 3119.30(C) and (D).
• Bigger bills: uncovered costs above the year’s cash medical amount, such as braces or therapy, are covered by a separate order, under section 3119.05(F).
• Medicaid: Ohio counts a public plan like Medicaid as health care coverage for the children, under section 3119.29.

If the children live with you and you get Ohio Works First (Ohio’s cash assistance), you have to help your county child support agency get support from the other parent, and the support it collects while you get assistance repays the state first. Food stamps (SNAP) don’t come with that requirement in Ohio.

• Ohio Works First: helping the child support agency is a condition of getting it, for example by naming the other parent and helping establish paternity. If you refuse without a good reason, your family’s assistance can be cut, under Ohio’s Ohio Works First child support rule.
• What your family keeps: none of the support collected while you get Ohio Works First comes to you until it has repaid this month’s grant and then past assistance, under Ohio’s distribution rule. After assistance ends, current support goes to you.
• Food stamps (SNAP): Ohio doesn’t make SNAP depend on helping with child support, according to the USDA SNAP State Options Report.
• A paying parent on assistance: if a parent with a minimum order gets Ohio Works First, SSI, or other benefits based on income and follows any order to look for work, they don’t have to pay while they get it, though the unpaid amounts still add up as back child support, under section 3119.06.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, such as from domestic violence, the agency can excuse you (Ohio calls this “good cause”). The Ohio child support guide covers which benefits open a case.

A paying parent never owes more than the schedule amount for their own income alone. Near the poverty line, Ohio keeps those amounts low so the parent has enough left to live on (Ohio calls this the self-sufficiency reserve). The minimum order is $80 a month, which a judge can lower for reasons like a disability.

• Self-sufficiency reserve: at low incomes the schedule grows slowly, so a paying parent keeps most of each extra dollar. For a parent earning $1,500 a month, it limits support for one child to $120 a month before child care and cash medical support, under section 3119.021(B)(2) and section 3119.05(G)(3).
• Minimum order: $80 a month for all the children ($72 after the 10% parenting-time reduction), which a judge can lower or waive for reasons like a medically verified disability, under section 3119.06.
• Both parents under $8,400 a year combined: the schedule has no amount, and the minimum order applies, under section 3119.04.
• Earning less by choice: a judge can count the income a parent could earn instead, based on their work history, education, and local jobs, under section 3119.01(C)(18). Under section 3119.05(I), a judge generally can’t do this while a parent gets benefits based on income, like Ohio Works First or SSI, or can’t work because of a documented disability.

No. Above $336,000 a year in combined income before taxes, the top of the schedule, a judge sets support case by case. It can’t be less than the amount at $336,000 unless the judge finds that amount unfair.

The judge considers the needs and standard of living of the children and both parents, under section 3119.04 of the Ohio Revised Code. At $336,000, the schedule amount for both parents together is $2,141 a month for one child, $3,163 for two, and $3,697 for three. Each parent pays their share of it.

Yes. A judge can order more or less than the formula amount if the judge finds that amount would be unfair and not in the child’s best interest. The order must state the formula amount and the reasons.

Reasons listed in section 3119.23 of the Ohio Revised Code include a child’s special needs, extended parenting time or high travel costs for exchanges, a big difference in the parents’ incomes or resources, a parent’s benefit from remarriage or shared living costs, and direct payments for things like lessons, school, or clothing. The judge must record the findings, under section 3119.22.

Ask your county child support enforcement agency (CSEA) to review the order, or file a motion in the court that issued it. If a new calculation comes out more than 10% higher or lower than the current order, that is enough to change it.

• When: either parent can ask the CSEA for a review 36 months after the most recent support order, or sooner in situations listed in Ohio’s review rule, such as involuntary unemployment lasting 30 days.
• Through the CSEA: fill out the Request for an Administrative Review of the Child Support Order (JFS 01849) and send it to your county CSEA.
• Through the court: file a motion to modify support in the court that issued the order.

The reasons for a change are in section 3119.79 of the Ohio Revised Code. The Ohio child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services runs the Ohio Child Support Calculator, which follows the same worksheet courts and county agencies use.

The Ohio Child Support Calculator works through the Sole/Shared Parenting Child Support Computation Worksheet (JFS 07768) line by line, including child care, cash medical support, and the income adjustments.