Oregon Child Support Calculator

It depends on both parents’ monthly income before taxes, the number of children, and the nights the children spend with each parent. For example, if you earn $4,000 a month, the other parent earns $2,000, and your one child lives with the other parent full time, you pay about $572 a month. Each night the child spends with you lowers that, and child care and health coverage costs are added on top.

Each row turns weekly pay into monthly pay (× 52 ÷ 12). The table assumes neither parent has income adjustments, such as spousal support or other children. In the lowest rows, the paying parent keeps $1,729 a month for their own living costs, which limits their share. The parenting time credit still grows with more children, so support can come out a little lower for three children than for two. Oregon’s scale of starting amounts for both parents together runs in $50 steps up to $30,000 a month and ten children, under OAR 137-050-0725.

Oregon uses an income shares formula, so both parents’ incomes count. It adds the parents’ incomes before taxes, looks up the scale amount, and splits it by each parent’s share of the combined income. Each parent then gets a credit for the nights the children spend with them. The parent who still owes more pays support.

The steps are in OAR 137-050-0710:

1. Find each parent’s income. Gross income from all sources, or what the parent could earn if they earn less than they’re able to, under OAR 137-050-0715.
2. Adjust it. Subtract spousal support paid, mandatory union dues, the parent’s own health insurance, and an amount for other children they support; add spousal support received, under OAR 137-050-0720.
3. Look up the scale amount for the combined adjusted income and number of children.
4. Split it by each parent’s share of the income. A parent’s share can’t be more than what they earn above $1,729 a month.
5. Add child care and health coverage costs.
6. Subtract each parent’s parenting time credit.
7. The parent who still owes more pays support. In most cases the minimum is $100 a month.

Example

One parent earns $4,000 a month and the other $2,000, so their combined income is $6,000. The scale amount for one child is $858. The higher earner has two thirds of the income, so with the child living with the other parent full time, they pay about $572 a month.

Yes. Each parent gets a credit starting with the first night the children spend with them, and the credit grows faster as the nights get closer to equal. With one child and gross pay of $4,000 and $2,000 a month, the higher earner pays $572 a month with no overnights, about $460 with 25% of the nights, $360 with 35%, and $143 at equal time (half the nights each).

Each parent’s credit is a percentage of the scale amount. A formula sets the percentage from the parent’s share of the year’s overnights: 13% at a quarter of the nights, 50% at half, and 100% at all of them. When parents have exactly equal time, the $100 minimum doesn’t apply, so parents with equal incomes pay each other $0.

Oregon counts overnights from your current written parenting plan or court order, averaged over two years. For a parent with long daytime visits, 12 hours in a row can count as a night. Without a current plan, the parent the children mainly live with gets credit for all the time. See OAR 137-050-0730.

Child care a parent pays so they can work, look for work, or get training needed for a job is split by income share, for children under 13 or with a disability. The parent who pays the provider gets credit for what they pay.

For example, if child care costs $600 a month and you have two thirds of the combined income, your share is $400. Only what a parent pays after any subsidy counts. Each child’s cost is capped each month at an amount that depends on the child’s age and where you live ($1,705 for a child under 3 in the Portland area). A parent’s share can’t leave them with less than the self-support reserve. See OAR 137-050-0735.

Every Oregon order covers the children’s health care. A parent with private coverage available at a reasonable cost is ordered to provide it, and the cost is shared between the parents. If neither parent has coverage, the paying parent can be ordered to pay cash medical support.

• Reasonable cost: coverage counts as reasonable if it costs no more than 4% of both parents’ adjusted incomes added together, under OAR 137-050-0750.
• Lower incomes: a parent earning no more than full-time pay at Oregon’s highest minimum wage (about $2,912 a month from July 2026) pays nothing toward coverage or cash medical support.
• Uncovered bills: the scale already includes $250 a child each year for everyday costs like bandages and well-visit copays. Larger costs, like orthodontia or a chronic condition, are split from the first dollar.

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 unless you have a good reason, such as a risk of violence. Most support collected repays the state, but your family gets up to $50 a child each month (at most $200). Food stamps (SNAP) don’t come with that requirement in Oregon.

• TANF: to qualify, you must agree to help, for example by naming the other parent and where they work. If you later refuse without a good reason, your grant goes down, under OAR 461-120-0340.
• What your family keeps: under OAR 137-055-6022, up to $50 a child of current support collected each month, at most $200, goes to your family. It doesn’t count against your TANF grant, under OAR 461-145-0080.
• Food stamps (SNAP): the USDA SNAP State Options Report lists Oregon as a state that doesn’t require help with child support.
• A paying parent on TANF or SSI: Oregon assumes they can’t pay, and no unpaid support (arrears) builds up while they get those benefits, under ORS 25.245.

If helping could put you or your children in danger, you can ask to be excused (“good cause”). The Oregon child support guide covers how this works.

Oregon protects $1,729 a month of each parent’s income for their own living costs. This is called the self-support reserve. A parent’s share of support can’t be more than what they earn above that amount. Even so, Oregon assumes a parent can pay at least $100 a month, unless an exception applies.

• Amount protected for living costs: $1,729 a month from July 1, 2026, updated each year with the federal poverty guideline, under OAR 137-050-0745.
• $100 minimum: under OAR 137-050-0755, the minimum doesn’t apply when parents have exactly equal time, or to a parent whose only income is disability benefits, to a parent in jail or prison for 180 days or more, or to a parent on TANF, SSI, or other public benefits.
• Earning less than they could: a judge can count the income a parent could earn, based on their work history and the jobs available nearby. If that is minimum wage for a parent living in Oregon, the judge uses Oregon’s lowest minimum wage. The rule also warns against assuming full-time minimum wage for a parent who has never earned it, under OAR 137-050-0715.

The scale stops at $30,000 a month in combined income, and above that the $30,000 amount applies. A judge can order a different amount when that one would be unfair.

At $30,000 combined, the scale amount is $1,987 a month for one child, $2,801 for two, and $3,217 for three. More than ten children use the amount for ten children. See OAR 137-050-0725.

Yes. A judge or the Child Support Program can order a different amount after finding the formula amount unfair and explaining why. Parents can also agree in writing to an amount within 15% of it.

Reasons the rule lists include a parent’s other resources and reasonable needs, other children they support, special hardships like a medical condition or long travel for parenting time, tax effects, and a spouse’s or partner’s income. See OAR 137-050-0760 and, for agreed amounts, OAR 137-050-0765.

Ask the Oregon Child Support Program to review your order, or file a motion in circuit court. Once your order is 35 months old, a review can update it without proof that anything changed. Before then, you need a big change, such as in income or parenting time. Keep paying the current order until it changes.

• Through the Child Support Program: send a Request for Review (CSF 01 0142A) with a Uniform Income and Expense Statement. Before 35 months, the new amount usually has to differ from the current order by more than $50 or 15%, whichever is less, under OAR 137-055-3430.
• Through the court: file a motion to modify in the circuit court that entered your judgment, especially if parenting time is changing too.

See OAR 137-055-3420 and DOJ’s page on how to modify an existing support order. The Oregon child support guide walks through each step.

Yes. The Oregon Department of Justice publishes the Oregon Child Support Guidelines Calculator, which courts and the Child Support Program use.

Use the Oregon Child Support Guidelines Calculator with the overnights from DOJ’s Parenting Time Calculator, which averages a parenting plan over two years.