Pennsylvania Child Support Calculator

At $6,000 per month in combined monthly net income, Pennsylvania's guidelines produce roughly $771/month for 1 child, $1,153/month for 2 children, $1,370/month for 3 children, $1,529/month for 4 children. These figures come from running Pennsylvania's own guideline formula, but they hold several things constant -- assumes the higher earner has 65% of the combined income shown and is the obligor because they have the fewer overnights (100/265 — also below the 40% custody-adjustment trigger), no deductions entered so net income equals the figure shown, and no add-ons. 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.

Pennsylvania uses the Income Shares model. Pennsylvania looks up a basic support obligation from the § 1910.16-3 statutory schedule by combined net income, prorated by each parent's income share. The parent with fewer overnights (the obligor) gets a reduction only once their own overnights reach 40% -- below that, the schedule already assumes 30% and no adjustment applies.

Pennsylvania's guideline runs on net income (both parents). 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 Pennsylvania: the parent with fewer annual overnights, whichever parent earns more — except under equally shared custody, where Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-4(c)(2) makes the higher earner the obligor and bars an order against the lower earner. 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 2026-01-01, and a human last checked it against the primary source on 2026-08-14. Sources: Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-2 — Support Guidelines. Calculation of Net Income; Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-3 — Support Guidelines. Basic Child Support Schedule; Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-3.1 — Support Guidelines. High-Income Cases; Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-4 — Support Guidelines. Calculation of Support Obligation, Formula; Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-6 — Support Guidelines. Allocation of Additional Expenses. It is still an estimate, not a court order -- a judge can order a different amount, and this is not legal advice.

The Pennsylvania guideline this calculator implements took legal effect on 2026-01-01. 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.

Implements Formula 1 (orders on/after 2019-01-01) only; Formula 2 (pre-2019 orders) is not implemented. The 575-row basic support schedule was transcribed programmatically from the PA Code HTML and validated against 11 independent anchor cells and full monotonicity, but the source page itself contains a data-quality defect for combined incomes $26,000-$29,950 across the 2-6 child columns (values nearly frozen, inconsistent with the schedule's own high-income extension). That band was patched via linear interpolation between the last clean row ($25,950) and the verified $30,000 row — see the header comment in shared/pa-schedule.ts. Pennsylvania's rule gives no interpolation instruction for combined income between $50 schedule rows (unlike Virginia, which explicitly directs interpolation). This calculator rounds to the nearest $50 row instead; the measured divergence from interpolation is under 1% above $4,000 combined income. See docs/pa-calculator-spec.md §26. Split custody (one or more children living primarily with each parent) is not implemented — the calculator collects a single overnight split for all children, consistent with the guideline's own preference for averaging over per-child calculation, but cannot compute the offset method Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-4 describes for true split-custody cases. Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-4(c)(2) applies to a child who spends 'an equal number of annual overnights' with each party, which 365 overnights cannot produce exactly. This calculator treats a split within one night of 50/50 as equal — a documented judgment call that decides two things: whether the income-equalization ceiling applies, and whether the obligor is designated by income (equal custody) or by having the fewer overnights (every other split). The obligor's income share is rounded to the nearest whole percentage point before being applied, matching the rule's own worked examples (68% and 53%, not 68.49% or 52.63%) exactly, but this is inferred from example precision rather than stated as an explicit rounding rule in the text. Income imputation for a party who fails to obtain appropriate employment (mandatory under Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-2, based on 13 fact-intensive factors) is not calculated, only disclosed. Existing child support orders for other children, spousal support/APL interaction, private school tuition, camp, and extracurricular allocation, and the discretionary Step Three high-income adjustment are not calculated, only disclosed. Judicial deviations under Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-5 are not predicted, consistent with every other calculator on this site. Pay frequency (weekly/biweekly conversion) is not collected as a separate input — unlike New Hampshire, no PA-specific conversion practice was confirmed during research, so only monthly income is accepted rather than guessing an unconfirmed multiplier. 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 Pennsylvania's official worksheet.

Yes. The figure produced by Pennsylvania'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. Pennsylvania's guideline is set out in Pa.R.Civ.P. 1910.16-2 — Support Guidelines. Calculation of Net Income.

You have to file for a modification -- a change in your circumstances does not change what you owe on its own. Pennsylvania, 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.