I had a few discussions about child support recently, including with a separated and soon to be divorced fellow perpederp. Best wishes brother. There were great amounts of confusion, along with the to be expected at this point hyperbolic comments from red pillers. So I thought I'd present a quick go to to understanding most child support.

This is not legal advice. I am not a lawyer. Just an old guy who has been divorced, and pays child support. If you need legal advice please consult an attorney.

Child support is a state law in the USA. It varies by state. Most states calculate child support in a very simple way, even if they actual calculations are more complex. You take the man's income, compare it to the woman's income to create a baseline of income transfer. Then you calculate in the number of overnight time each parent has. Each overnight is basically counted as a day. 30 days in a month.

Let's take a very typical child support scenario. The husband is average and makes $50k a year. So his take home pay, net, is roughly $2800 a month. Now let's assume he gets the general standard of joint custody, and has 4 overnights a month. 4/30 so he has 13% custody. Often when men say that they have joint custody, this is what they mean. Not 50%, but every other weekend and another day during the week every week that does not go overnight so doesn't count in child support calculations.

Now this average man gets divorced and gets pretty standard joint custody. Let's assume he had a stay at home wife, which is not at all the mean, the average, or the norm. He will pay ~$700 a month for one child, $1100 a month for two, $1400 for three, and $1600 for four.

Now let's make that a bit more realistic and let's say that his soon to be ex wife has a job making not quite as much as the guy. Say she makes $35,000 a year.

For one child the man will now pay ~$600 a month. For two children you are looking at $1000 a month. $1200 for three and $1400 for four.

Due note that their isn't much of a decrease. That's because the total family income just went from $50k to $85k and child support is meant to allow the children to retain roughly the same standard of living. Mom having a job raises the standard of living.

Now on top of child support it is common for the man to be ordered to retain insurance for the children. It is also common for the man to be ordered to pay half of all insurance co-pays and medical bills, as these are seen as emergencies not taken into account in child support. And the big one, for working mothers. It is common for the man to be ordered to pay half of the day care expenses.

Now the knitty gritty is a lot more complicated. Each state has its own laws that are easily searchable. Most states have a freely accessable child support calculator you can go throw numbers into.

But let's just take your average Joe with his $50k a year average job. He's taking home like $2800 a month. If he has four kids and gets hit with standard child support he will be losing over half his income and ends up living in an apartment he shares with roommates. Cause $1200 a month isn't that much. But he will also have enormous amounts of free time compared to mom, who now has 80% of her time being a single parent. If it's just one kid then he's paying $700 leaving him with a livable $1900.

This all changes if any of the inputs change. But hopefully this quick rundown will help clear up the confusion around child support from folks who have only heard "I pay this much!!!!"

Edit - math errors