How Is Child Support Calculated in North Carolina?

North Carolina calculates child support by combining both parents’ monthly incomes, looking up a base obligation on the state’s Schedule of Basic Support Obligations, adding costs for childcare and health insurance, and splitting the total between the parents in proportion to each one’s share of the combined income. The math runs through one of three standardized worksheets, and which worksheet applies depends on the custody arrangement. The current guidelines took effect on January 1, 2023.¹

Step One: Each Parent’s Monthly Gross Income

The calculation starts with what each parent earns. Gross income includes wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, severance pay, dividends, rental income, trust distributions, Social Security benefits, and workers’ compensation payments.¹ The list is broad by design. If money comes in on a recurring basis, it almost certainly counts.

Supplemental Security Income and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are excluded. Need-based public assistance is not treated as available income for child support purposes.

From gross income, the guidelines allow specific deductions, including existing child support obligations a parent already pays for other children. What remains is each parent’s adjusted gross income.

If a Parent Is Voluntarily Unemployed or Underemployed

A judge does not have to accept reported income at face value. If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or working well below their earning capacity, the court can impute income by assigning a figure based on what the parent could reasonably earn. The judge weighs recent work history, education, skills, physical and mental health, and the local job market.² The point is to prevent a parent from quitting or taking a dramatic pay cut to shrink the obligation.

Step Two: Look Up the Base Obligation

Add the two parents’ adjusted gross incomes together. That combined figure is what you use to look up a base support amount on the Schedule of Basic Support Obligations, which lists dollar figures for one through six children at every income level. The schedule reflects typical household spending on food, clothing, and housing at each income band.

A few sample rows show how the numbers scale:³

$1,500 combined monthly income: $170 for one child, $171 for two children
$1,700 combined monthly income: $309 for one child, $312 for two children
$1,750 combined monthly income: $343 for one child, $347 for two children

At the low end, the obligation holds at $50 regardless of the number of children, reflecting a built-in floor the guidelines call the self-support reserve. If the paying parent’s adjusted gross income is below $1,150 per month, the minimum order is $50 unless the court deviates.¹ Above that threshold, the schedule keeps the paying parent with enough to maintain a basic standard of living. The reserve figure in the current guidelines is tied to the 2022 federal poverty level for one person ($1,133 per month).

The schedule extends up to $30,000 in combined monthly income. If the parents earn more than that between them, the court sets the amount case-by-case based on the child’s reasonable needs and each parent’s ability to pay.¹

Step Three: Pick the Right Worksheet

North Carolina uses three worksheets, and the custody arrangement decides which one you use. Picking the wrong worksheet produces the wrong number.

Worksheet A: Primary Custody

Worksheet A applies when one parent has primary physical custody and the child spends fewer than 123 overnights per year with the other parent.⁴ The non-custodial parent pays their percentage share of the combined obligation.

Worksheet B: Shared Custody

Worksheet B applies when the child spends at least 123 nights per year with each parent. The 123-night line is the dividing point; if either parent falls below it, Worksheet A applies instead.⁵ The shared custody math accounts for expenses both parents absorb while the child is in their home, and it often produces a lower obligation than Worksheet A would.

Worksheet C: Split Custody

Worksheet C applies when there are multiple children and each parent has primary custody of at least one of them. The worksheet calculates each parent’s obligation for the children in the other parent’s home and nets the two figures against each other to produce a single payment.

Step Four: Add Childcare, Health Insurance, and Extraordinary Expenses

The schedule’s base amount covers ordinary expenses. Three categories get added before the obligation is split between parents.

Work-related childcare costs go on top of the base amount. If a parent pays for daycare or after-school care so they can hold a job, that cost is folded in.⁶ Health insurance premiums for the child are added the same way. So are extraordinary expenses the court finds necessary for the child’s well-being, such as special educational needs or significant travel for visitation when parents live far apart.¹

All of these additions, like the base obligation itself, are divided between the parents in proportion to their incomes. If one parent earns 60% of the combined total, that parent covers 60% of the childcare, insurance, and extraordinary expenses.

Why the Guidelines Use Both Parents’ Income

The model is called Income Shares. The idea is that a child should receive the same share of parental income they would have received if the family had stayed together, so the formula looks at household resources rather than only what the non-custodial parent earns. N.C.G.S. § 50-13.4 authorizes the Conference of Chief District Court Judges to set presumptive guidelines that courts across the state must follow.²

When a Judge Orders a Different Amount

The number the worksheet produces is presumptively correct, and a judge will usually order that figure. Either parent can ask the court to deviate by showing the guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate.² The judge first hears evidence about the child’s reasonable needs and each parent’s ability to provide support, then must find by the greater weight of the evidence that the guideline amount falls short of, exceeds, or is otherwise unjust for those needs.

A deviation order has to spell out, in writing, the presumptive guideline amount, why it was inappropriate, and the basis for the new figure.¹ Without those findings, the order is vulnerable on appeal. Common grounds for deviation include unusual medical expenses for the child, significant debts a parent took on for the child’s benefit, or a child with independent income or assets. Simply arguing the amount feels too high or too low will not get a deviation. The parent asking for one needs specific facts.

How Long the Calculation Applies

A child support order calculated under the guidelines generally runs until the child turns 18.² If the child is still in primary or secondary school at 18, support continues until the child graduates, stops attending regularly, fails to make satisfactory academic progress, or turns 20, whichever comes first. A child enrolled in an approved cooperative innovative high school program under Chapter 115C can have support extended through the fourth year of enrollment or until age 18, whichever is later. Earlier emancipation ends support at that point. North Carolina does not require parents to pay child support through college.

1
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines
2
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 50-13.4 – Action for Support of Minor Child
3
North Carolina Child Support Services. North Carolina Schedule of Basic Support Obligations
4
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. North Carolina Child Support Worksheet A – Primary Custody
5
North Carolina Judicial Branch. AOC-CV-628 – Child Support Obligation Joint or Shared Physical Custody
6
North Carolina Child Support Services. North Carolina Child Support Guidelines