How Much Is Child Support for 1 Kid in Kentucky?

Child support for one child in Kentucky is not a flat number. The state uses an Income Shares formula, so the amount depends on both parents’ combined monthly income and each parent’s share of it. Base obligations for a single child run from roughly $350 per month when the parents together earn $2,000, up to about $1,005 per month at $10,000 in combined income.¹ That figure is the total both parents owe the child. The paying parent’s actual monthly check is their percentage of the combined income applied to that base, adjusted for things like parenting time, childcare, and health insurance.

How the Calculation Works

Kentucky combines both parents’ adjusted gross incomes into one number, then looks that number up in a statutory guidelines table to find the base child support obligation. Work-related childcare and the child’s health insurance premium get added on top. The total is then split between the parents in proportion to what each contributes to the combined income.¹

An example makes it concrete. Say one parent earns $3,000 a month and the other earns $2,000. Combined income is $5,000, and the table sets the base obligation for one child at that level at $676. The higher earner accounts for 60% of the combined income, so that parent’s share is about $406 per month before any childcare or insurance costs are layered in. If that parent is the noncustodial one, $406 is roughly what they’d pay.

Base Amounts for One Child

These figures come straight from the guidelines table in KRS 403.212 and show the total base obligation for one child at several income levels:²

$2,000 combined monthly income: $350
$3,000 combined: $465
$5,000 combined: $676
$7,000 combined: $851
$10,000 combined: $1,005

Remember, these totals get split between both parents based on income share, and childcare and insurance are added before that split. Kentucky provides a free online calculator at kentuckychildsupport.ky.gov that runs the full computation with your actual numbers.

What Counts as Income

Kentucky defines gross income broadly. Wages and salary count, and so do bonuses, commissions, dividends, interest, capital gains, severance, retirement and pension distributions, trust income, Social Security, workers’ compensation, unemployment, disability, gifts, prizes, and alimony received from another relationship.¹

Two things are excluded: means-tested public assistance (like TANF) and food stamps.

Perks that reduce personal living expenses, such as a company car, free housing, or reimbursed meals, count as income if they’re significant. Self-employment income is calculated as gross receipts minus ordinary business expenses, with limits on how depreciation and tax credits can reduce the figure.

Before the table lookup, each parent can subtract two things from gross income: child support they’re already paying under a court order for children from a previous relationship, and court-ordered maintenance paid to a former spouse. What’s left is the adjusted gross income that feeds the rest of the math.

How Parenting Time Changes the Number

If the paying parent has the child for a significant portion of the year, Kentucky reduces the support obligation. The threshold is 88 days per year, where a “day” means more than 12 consecutive hours in a 24-hour period.³ The credit scales up from there:

88–115 days: 15% reduction
116–129 days: 20.5% reduction
130–142 days: 25% reduction
143–152 days: 30.5% reduction
153–162 days: 36% reduction
163–172 days: 42% reduction
173–181 days: 48.5% reduction
182+ days (equal time): 50% reduction

The reduction percentage is applied to the total support obligation from the worksheet, and the result is subtracted from the paying parent’s share. When time is split equally, the higher-earning parent is treated as the obligor.³

Childcare and Health Insurance

The child support figure isn’t only the base amount from the table. Work-related childcare costs and the premium for the child’s health insurance get added to the base before it’s prorated between the parents. If one parent pays the premium directly, the worksheet credits them for it so the cost is shared according to income share.

Kentucky orders almost always require one parent to carry health insurance if affordable coverage is available through an employer. The child support agency can enforce that directly by sending a National Medical Support Notice to the employer, who is legally required to honor it.⁴

When a Judge Can Order a Different Amount

The guidelines number is a rebuttable presumption. A judge has to use it unless applying it would be unjust or inappropriate, and any deviation has to be explained in writing. The statute lists specific grounds:⁵

Extraordinary medical or dental needs of the child
Extraordinary educational or special needs, including job training
Either parent’s extraordinary needs, such as high medical expenses
The child’s own financial resources, like an inheritance or trust
Combined income above the top of the guidelines table
A written parental agreement for a different amount, provided both parents know the guideline figure and no public assistance is being paid for the child
One parent’s consistent failure to exercise court-ordered parenting time
Any other extraordinary factor the court specifically identifies

What qualifies as “extraordinary” is the court’s call. Documentation matters here. General claims about unusual expenses rarely move a judge; receipts and records do.

Unemployed or Underemployed Parents

If a parent is voluntarily unemployed or earning less than they could, the court doesn’t calculate support on the lower income. It uses “potential income” instead, based on the parent’s recent work history, qualifications, and the local job market.¹ The court doesn’t have to find that the parent was trying to dodge child support. Being underemployed without a good reason is enough.

Potential income does not apply in three situations: the parent is incarcerated, physically or mentally incapacitated, or caring for a child age three or younger for whom both parents share legal responsibility.¹

How Long Support Lasts

Child support in Kentucky generally ends when the child turns 18. If the child is still a high school student at 18, support continues through the end of the school year in which the child turns 19.⁶ Marriage before 18 emancipates the child and ends the obligation. Parents can agree in writing to something else, like paying through college, but a court won’t order that on its own. Any unpaid support already owed stays enforceable after the child is emancipated.

Changing the Amount Later

Either parent can ask the court to modify support when there’s a material change in circumstances that’s substantial and continuing. Kentucky uses a concrete benchmark: if plugging current numbers into the guidelines would produce an amount at least 15% different from the existing order, that difference is presumed to be a material change.⁶ A change under 15% is presumed not to qualify, though strong evidence can overcome that.

The new amount only applies to payments due after the motion is filed. Kentucky courts won’t retroactively reduce support you already owe.

What Happens if You Don’t Pay

Enforcement in Kentucky is quick and layered. Income withholding through the paying parent’s employer is standard and usually starts when the order is entered. Once arrears hit six months’ worth of payments, the Transportation Cabinet is required to suspend or refuse to issue the parent’s driver’s license, and it stays suspended until the arrears are paid off or the parent is making payments under a court or administrative order.⁷ Courts can also hold a non-paying parent in contempt, which can mean jail time.

Federal enforcement adds tax refund interception, which pulls money from the parent’s federal refund and sends it to the custodial parent.⁸ Once past-due support reaches $2,500, the State Department will deny, revoke, or restrict the parent’s passport until the debt is resolved.⁹

1
Justia Law. Kentucky Revised Statutes 403.212 – Child Support Guidelines
2
Justia Law. Kentucky Revised Statutes 403.212 – Child Support Guidelines
3
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Code 403.2122 – Shared Parenting Time Credit
4
Administration for Children and Families. Medical Support
5
Justia Law. Kentucky Revised Statutes 403.211 – Action to Establish or Enforce Child Support
6
Justia Law. Kentucky Revised Statutes 403.213 – Criteria for Modification of Orders for Child Support
7
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Code 186.570 – Denial or Suspension of License
8
Administration for Children and Families. How Does a Federal Tax Refund Offset Work?
9
Administration for Children and Families. Passport Denial Program 101