How much is child support for one child? (2026, by state)

One child is where every child support guideline starts. Schedules begin with a one-child column, percentage states set their lowest rate for one child, and every larger family is measured against it. It is also the question parents ask most often: how much is child support for one child?

The answer depends on the state and on both parents’ incomes, so this guide puts numbers on it. Every figure below is the guideline amount computed from each state’s current rules for one child who lives mainly with Parent B, while Parent A, the paying parent, has the child about one night a week. It is an estimate of what the formula produces, not a prediction of an order, and courts can deviate from the guidelines. For your own figures, the child support calculator runs each state’s rules.

One child, state by state

The table shows the monthly guideline amount for one child at three income pairs. Incomes are gross yearly figures. Each state name links to that state’s one-child page, which has amounts at many more incomes and a calculator set up for one child.

Across the 51 jurisdictions, the median guideline amount for one child is $556 a month at the lowest income pair, $697 at the middle pair and $955 at the highest. About half of the states fall above each figure and half below, so the median is a fairer “average” than a mean, which a few unusual states can pull up or down. The same figures, with two-child amounts and each state’s rules dates, are in the child support amounts by state dataset as a sortable table and CSV. Paid hourly or every two weeks? The income converter gives the yearly figure the table uses.

Where the amount is highest and lowest

With Parent A earning $60,000 a year and Parent B earning $40,000, the highest one-child amounts are in Massachusetts ($1,049), Delaware ($873) and New Jersey ($851) and the lowest are in Idaho ($515), Oregon ($535) and Oklahoma ($556). The spread comes from how each state builds its formula: the economic studies behind its schedule, gross or net income, how it estimates taxes, and when it last updated its figures.

The order shifts as incomes change. With Parent A at $40,000 and Parent B at $30,000, the top of the list is Massachusetts ($724), New Jersey ($688) and Delaware ($673) and the bottom is Idaho ($376), Montana ($382) and Mississippi ($390). With Parent A at $100,000 and Parent B at $60,000, the top is Massachusetts ($1,573), Wisconsin ($1,377), Texas ($1,320) and Alaska ($1,315), and the bottom is Idaho ($698), Oregon ($728) and Utah ($781).

Income shares schedules generally take a smaller part of each extra dollar as combined income rises, because the spending studies behind them find that families spend a smaller share of higher incomes on children. A flat percentage keeps taking the same share of the paying parent’s income, so percentage states tend to climb the list as incomes rise. At the bottom of the range, low-income rules take over.

Percentage of income vs income shares for one child

Percentage states write the one-child rate into their guidelines. Tex. Fam. Code § 154.125 sets 20% of the paying parent’s monthly net resources for one child. Wisconsin’s percentage standard sets 17% of the paying parent’s gross income, and Alaska uses 20% of adjusted annual income. New York applies its one-child rate of 17% to the parents’ combined income and then divides the result by income share.

Income shares states, 41 of the jurisdictions covered here, start from a schedule instead. It gives the estimated cost of one child at the parents’ combined income, and the paying parent pays their share of that amount. The comparison of the models walks through each one in detail.

The difference shows when the receiving parent’s income changes. Keep Parent A at $60,000 and raise Parent B’s income from $40,000 to $80,000:

• In Wisconsin, the guideline amount stays at $850, because the percentage looks only at the paying parent’s income.
• In Florida, an income shares state, it moves from $709 to $603, because Parent A’s share of combined income falls.
• In New York the amount stays at $785. Applying the rate to combined income and then taking Parent A’s share gives the same result as applying it to Parent A’s income alone, as long as combined income stays under the $193,000 cap and no low-income rule applies.

How parenting time changes the amount

For one child, parenting time can move the figure more than anything else. States take three broad approaches, and the same family sees very different results when Parent A’s time rises from about one night a week to about two.

• A threshold, as in Florida. When each parent has the children at least 73 overnights a year, the basic obligation is increased by half and each parent's share is multiplied by the other parent's share of overnights, then offset. The guideline amount falls from $709 to $535 a month.
• A sliding scale, as in Colorado. Every overnight counts. The parenting time table gives each parent a credit percentage for their overnights; that percentage of the total basic obligation is subtracted from the parent's share, and the parent who owes more pays the difference. With equal time each parent's credit is half, so the parent with the larger income share pays. The amount moves from $678 to $538.
• No adjustment in the guidelines, as in Texas. The Texas guidelines don't adjust support for parenting time. Courts may deviate based on the time each parent has with the children. The Texas figure stays at $840.

Among the states covered here, the guidelines themselves make no parenting time adjustment in Connecticut, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Texas and Washington. The parenting time calculator counts overnights from a schedule, and the parenting time guide compares every state’s rule.

Health insurance and child care

Most worksheets add the child’s health insurance premium and work-related child care to the basic amount and divide them by income. For one child, those costs can be a large part of the total. Suppose Parent B pays $300 a month for the child’s coverage and $800 a month for daycare.

• In Florida, Fla. Stat. § 61.30 adds both costs to the basic obligation and shares them by income. The guideline amount rises from $709 to $881 with the premium, and to $1,339 with daycare as well.
• In Pennsylvania, the worksheet shares both costs by income too, after reducing child care by the federal tax credit. The amount rises from $734 to $1,308.
• In Wisconsin, child care is not a worksheet line; it is a factor a court can weigh in deviating. With daycare alone, the guideline amount stays at $850.

The guides to health insurance and medical support and childcare costs compare these methods across states.

Low incomes and minimum orders

At low incomes, a one-child amount is often set by a low-income rule rather than the schedule. Federal rules require one: under 45 CFR 302.56, guidelines must take into account the basic subsistence needs of a paying parent with a limited ability to pay, for example through a self-support reserve.

Take a paying parent earning $15,000 a year, with the other parent earning $30,000.

• In North Carolina, the guideline amount is $50 a month, the state’s minimum order of $50.
• In Pennsylvania, it is $0, because the paying parent’s income is below the self-support reserve of $1,255 a month.
• In Texas, it is $231. When the paying parent's net resources are under $1,000 a month, lower percentages apply: 15% for one child up to 35% for five or more. Texas has no self-support reserve and no minimum order.

Among the jurisdictions covered here, the rules set a minimum order in 19 and a self-support reserve in 26. The guide to child support for low-income parents has the full table.

Using the one-child figure

The guideline amount is a reference point, not a court order. A court or agency works from the incomes it accepts, which may differ from the figures entered in a calculator, and courts can deviate from the guidelines when the result would be unjust or inappropriate in a particular case.

Each state’s one-child page, such as Texas, California or Florida, shows the amount at a range of incomes and links to the state’s official worksheet or calculator and its child support agency. The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement keeps a list of state child support agencies that can open a case or review an order. If there is more than one child, child support for multiple children shows how the amount scales, and child support for twins and multiples covers twins and triplets.