How Much Is Child Support in New Mexico: Schedule, Add-Ons, Custody

Child support in New Mexico is set by a statutory formula that combines both parents’ monthly incomes, looks up a basic obligation on the state’s schedule, and divides that obligation between the parents in proportion to what each one earns. For a quick benchmark: parents with a combined $5,000 per month and one child face a basic obligation of about $825 per month before health insurance and childcare are added, and the higher earner pays a larger share of that figure. The rules live in Section 40-4-11.1 of the New Mexico Statutes, and the number the formula produces is presumed correct unless the court finds a reason to depart from it.¹

How the Number Is Built

New Mexico follows an “income shares” model. The premise is that a child should receive roughly the same share of parental income they would have had if the parents lived together. The court adds both parents’ gross incomes, finds the total obligation for that combined income on the state schedule, then divides it in proportion to each parent’s share of the total. A parent who earns 60% of the combined income is responsible for 60% of the basic obligation.¹

Two worksheets drive the final number. Worksheet A is used when one parent has the children less than 35% of the year. Worksheet B is used when each parent has the children at least 35% of the year, and it adjusts the paying parent’s amount downward to reflect the costs that parent covers directly in their own home.¹

Sample Amounts From the New Mexico Schedule

The figures below come from the state’s basic child support schedule effective January 1, 2024. They show the total monthly obligation for the combined income before it is split between parents and before add-ons:²

Combined income $2,000/month: $356 for one child, $443 for two children
Combined income $3,000/month: $515 for one child, $784 for two children
Combined income $5,000/month: $825 for one child, $1,243 for two children
Combined income $10,000/month: $1,189 for one child, $1,761 for two children
Combined income $20,000/month: $1,882 for one child, $2,739 for two children
Combined income $30,000/month: $2,419 for one child, $3,574 for two children

For combined incomes above $40,000 per month, the schedule adds a percentage of the excess. One child: $2,956 plus 5.4% of income over $40,000. Two children: $4,341 plus 7.7% of the excess.²

Remember, those are the total obligations. If the parents’ combined income is $5,000 and one parent earns $3,000, that parent’s share of the $825 one-child figure is roughly $495 per month. Health insurance and childcare still get added on top.

What Income the Court Counts

Gross income is defined broadly. It covers wages, salaries, tips, commissions, bonuses, severance, pensions, interest, trust income, dividends, capital gains, Social Security benefits, workers’ compensation, unemployment, disability benefits, prizes, and alimony received. Self-employed parents start from business receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses.¹

Several income sources are left out. Means-tested benefits like TANF and SSI don’t count. Neither does child support received for other children, alimony the parent pays under a court order, or child support already being paid for prior children under a separate order. A new spouse’s income is not included in the calculation, even though New Mexico is a community property state.¹

If the court finds a parent has willfully failed to get or keep suitable work, it can impute income based on earning potential. The court weighs job opportunities, work history, skills, education, age, health, criminal record, and whether the parent is caring for a child of the parties who is under six or disabled. A parent incarcerated for 180 days or longer cannot have income imputed to them, and that incarceration is not treated as voluntary unemployment.¹

Add-Ons That Increase the Amount

The schedule number is the floor, not the ceiling. Two categories are mandatory add-ons and get split between the parents in proportion to their incomes:

Health insurance premiums for the children, calculated as the difference between individual and family coverage.³
Work-related childcare costs that a parent incurs because they work or are looking for work.

Courts may also add uninsured medical, dental, and counseling expenses above $100 per child per year, extraordinary educational expenses such as private school tuition or specialized programs, and transportation or communication costs tied to long-distance visitation. These extraordinary costs get split proportionally as well.¹

How Custody Time Changes the Number

The 35% line matters. Below it, Worksheet A applies and the noncustodial parent typically pays the larger share because the custodial parent carries most daily expenses. At or above 35%, Worksheet B applies, and the paying parent’s amount comes down to reflect the costs they cover during their own time with the children. Thirty-five percent of the year works out to roughly 128 overnights.¹

Parents negotiating a parenting plan should count overnights carefully. Crossing or missing that threshold can meaningfully shift the monthly amount.

Low-Income Protection: The Self-Support Reserve

The schedule has a built-in protection for parents at the lower end of the income range. When the paying parent falls into that range, the calculation uses only that parent’s income rather than the combined income, and childcare, insurance premiums, and other add-ons are not stacked on top. Worksheet A is used.⁴ At the lowest income levels (combined income of $1,450 or less), the minimum obligation is $60 per month for one child.²

When the Guideline Amount Can Be Reduced or Increased

The guideline figure is presumed correct, but a court can deviate when circumstances justify it. Any deviation has to be explained in writing in the order.¹

One trigger is written into the statute. If the calculated support would exceed 40% of the paying parent’s gross income, there is a presumption of substantial hardship that supports a downward deviation. A parent whose calculated obligation reaches that line has solid grounds to ask the court to reduce it.¹

Courts can also consider extraordinary educational costs, a child’s special needs, or other unusual financial circumstances that would make the guideline amount clearly unfair to a parent or the child.

Changing the Amount Later

Support orders can be modified when there’s been a material and substantial change in circumstances since the last order. Common reasons include a significant change in either parent’s income, a job loss, a new custody arrangement, or a change in the child’s health care needs.⁵

New Mexico presumes circumstances have materially changed if running the current guidelines would produce an amount more than 20% different from the existing order, as long as the petition is filed more than a year after the prior order. That 20% rule runs both ways, so either parent can use it.⁵

Until the court actually modifies the order, the existing amount stays legally enforceable. A parent whose income drops should file the modification petition rather than reducing payments unilaterally.

When Child Support Ends

Monthly payments continue until the youngest child turns 18. If the child is still in high school at 18, payments run until graduation or age 19, whichever comes first.⁶

With more than one child on the order, the amount does not drop automatically when an older child ages out. The paying parent needs to request a modification so the court can recalculate for fewer children. Without that step, the original amount keeps running.

If a child has a physical or mental disability that prevents self-support, the obligation can continue indefinitely, and it’s easier to address that in the order before the child turns 18 than to seek it afterward. New Mexico does not generally order parents to pay for college expenses as part of child support.

1
Justia. New Mexico Code 40-4-11.1 – Child Support Guidelines
2
New Mexico Health Care Authority. 8.50.108 NMAC – Establishment and Modification of Support Order and Basic Child Support Schedule
3
New Mexico Administrative Code. 8.50.109 NMAC – Medical Support
4
Legal Information Institute. N.M. Admin. Code 8.50.108.10 – Basic Child Support Schedule and the Self-Support Reserve
5
Justia. New Mexico Code 40-4-11.4 – Modification of Child Support
6
New Mexico Courts. 4A-303 Child Support Obligation and Order