New Jersey Child Support Calculator

At $6,000 per month in combined monthly gross income, New Jersey's guidelines produce roughly $884/month for 1 child, $1,017/month for 2 children, $1,183/month for 3 children, $1,318/month for 4 children. These figures come from running New Jersey's own guideline formula, but they hold several things constant -- assumes the higher earner has 65% of the combined gross income shown (neither self-employed) and is the Parent of Alternate Residence with 100 of 365 overnights, net income estimated from gross using current tax rates, and no deductions or add-ons. 100/365 is below the 104-overnight Shared Parenting threshold, so the Sole Parenting Worksheet applies. Your actual number depends on both parents' incomes, your parenting-time schedule, and add-on costs like childcare and health insurance, so run the calculator for your own case.

New Jersey uses the Income Shares model. New Jersey looks up a basic support amount from the Appendix IX-F schedule by combined weekly net income, then applies the Sole or Shared Parenting Worksheet depending on how much time the children spend with each parent. Net income is estimated from gross using current tax rates, since New Jersey's official withholding tables aren't built into this calculator -- enter an exact net income if you know it.

New Jersey's guideline runs on net income (both parents) -- New Jersey is the only state on this site whose schedule runs on weekly, not monthly, income. That distinction matters: entering gross income into a formula built on net income (or the reverse) produces a materially wrong figure. Most states count income from essentially any regular source -- wages, self-employment, bonuses, commissions, rental and investment income, and many benefits -- not just salary.

Not necessarily. In New Jersey: Income Shares, Appendix IX-B/IX-C/IX-D worksheets (schedule rev. eff. 2025-09-01). Because the guideline also weighs each parent's share of income, a significantly higher earner can still owe support at an even time split.

This calculator's core formula has been verified against the primary source, with any unimplemented rules listed openly rather than hidden. It implements the guideline in effect as of 2025-09-01, and a human last checked it against the primary source on 2026-08-14. Sources: N.J. Ct. R. 5:6A — Child Support Guidelines; Appendix IX-A — Considerations in the Use of Child Support Guidelines; Appendix IX-B — Use of the Child Support Guidelines (Sole and Shared Parenting worksheet instructions); Appendix IX-C — Sole Parenting Worksheet; Appendix IX-D — Shared Parenting Worksheet; Appendix IX-F — Schedule of Child Support Awards (rev. eff. 2025-09-01). It is still an estimate, not a court order -- a judge can order a different amount, and this is not legal advice.

The New Jersey guideline this calculator implements took legal effect on 2025-09-01. States revise their guidelines periodically -- federal rules require each state to review its guidelines at least once every four years -- so a figure from an older calculator or article may reflect a superseded rule.

New Jersey's schedule (Appendix IX-F) runs on net income, and the official gross-to-net conversion is Appendix IX-H's combined withholding tables, which are not transcribed. Net income is instead estimated (shared/nj-tax.ts) from 2026 federal (single-filer, standard deduction) and New Jersey tax rates, FICA/self-employment tax, and NJ SUI/WF/SWF/TDI/FLI payroll contributions. This is the reason New Jersey ships as 'partial' rather than 'verified'. A visitor who knows their exact net income can enter it directly, bypassing the estimator. The net-income estimator models only the single filing status; head-of-household and married-filing-jointly are not modeled. The federal Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and other dependent-related credits are not modeled. The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax above $200,000 is not modeled. The Shared Parenting Worksheet's household-income safety-net test (Appendix IX-B, Shared Parenting, Line 36) is not implemented. At very low combined income, that test can require recalculating the award under the Sole Parenting Worksheet instead; this calculator does not apply it, so the shared-parenting result shown at low income may be higher than what a court would actually order. It requires the net income of other adults in the primary household, an input this calculator does not collect, and a household-size threshold table (Appendix IX-A ¶14) that could not be fetched during research (njcourts.gov returned HTTP 403 to automated requests — see docs/nj-calculator-spec.md §14). The Shared Parenting Worksheet requires that the Parent of Alternate Residence provide separate living accommodations for the children — a fact a court decides. This calculator assumes that requirement is met whenever the 104-overnight threshold is met. The other-dependents adjustment (Appendix IX-B (Sole) Lines 22-24 / (Shared) Lines 30-32, which averages the support obligation with and without deducting other-dependent obligations) is not implemented. This calculator's 'child support actually paid under a prior order' field captures only an existing court-ordered obligation being paid, a simpler and distinct concept. Split parenting (children divided between the two households) is not implemented. Imputed income for an unemployed or underemployed parent (Appendix IX-A) is not calculated, only disclosed. College and post-secondary contribution is not calculated. Appendix IX-F's 343-row schedule ($180-$3,600/week combined net income, $10 increments) was transcribed from the official PDF using two independent pdftotext extraction algorithms that agree byte-for-byte across all 343 rows, and validated against hand-verified anchor cells and full monotonicity across both income and child count. The schedule's 2-child/1-child award ratio genuinely declines to near 1.0 at the top of the range (two children costing almost the same as one) — confirmed as a real, longstanding feature of this schedule (not a transcription defect) against an independently published mirror of the 2013 revision. See shared/nj-schedule.ts and docs/nj-calculator-spec.md §8 for the full investigation. Judicial deviations under N.J. Ct. R. 5:6A are not predicted, consistent with every other calculator on this site. If any of these apply to your case, treat the estimate as a starting point and confirm the figure with an attorney, a mediator, or New Jersey's official worksheet.

Yes. The figure produced by New Jersey's Income Shares guideline is presumptive, not mandatory: a court can order a different amount when applying the guideline would be unjust or inappropriate for the specific case, and generally must state its reason on the record. Common grounds include extraordinary medical or educational expenses, a child's special needs, or costs the formula does not capture. New Jersey's guideline is set out in N.J. Ct. R. 5:6A — Child Support Guidelines.

You have to file for a modification -- a change in your circumstances does not change what you owe on its own. New Jersey, like most states, requires a substantial change in circumstances: a significant involuntary income change, a change in the parenting schedule, or a material change in the child's needs. Until a court or the state child support agency issues a new order, the existing amount stays fully enforceable and arrears keep accruing, and a modification is generally not applied retroactively before the date you filed -- so filing promptly matters.