What Is the Child Support Percentage in Florida?

Florida has no flat child support percentage. Instead, the state uses an Income Shares Model that adds both parents’ monthly net incomes together, finds the total support obligation for that combined income on a statutory schedule, and then divides it between the parents in proportion to what each one earns.¹ So the honest answer to “what percentage will I pay” is: whatever percentage of the combined household income you bring in, applied to a dollar figure the statute sets based on income and number of children.

A quick example makes it concrete. Parents with a combined net income of $5,000 per month and one child start with a base obligation of $1,000; the same income with two children produces $1,551. If one parent earns 65% of the combined total, that parent owes 65% of the obligation.¹

How the Schedule Translates Income Into a Dollar Amount

The guidelines schedule inside Florida Statute 61.30 is a lookup table. You find the row for your combined monthly net income and the column for the number of children, and that cell is the total obligation both parents share. A few reference points:

$2,000 combined monthly net income: $442 for one child, $686 for two
$5,000 combined: $1,000 for one child, $1,551 for two
$10,000 combined: $1,437 for one child, $2,228 for two

Once you have the total, each parent’s share is proportional to their income. If you earn 40% of the combined net, you’re responsible for 40% of that number. That share, not a percentage of your paycheck, is the figure that drives your payment.¹

Where Fixed Percentages Do Show Up

The schedule caps at $10,000 of combined monthly net income. Above that, the obligation equals the maximum schedule amount plus a flat percentage of income above $10,000: 5% for one child, 7.5% for two, 9.5% for three, and higher for larger families.¹ These are the only true “percentages” written into the formula, and they only apply to the slice of combined income over $10,000.

There is also a ceiling at the other end. If the formula would require you to pay more than 55% of your gross income in current support from a single order, that triggers one of the statute’s listed reasons to deviate downward.¹ It’s not an automatic cap, but it’s a built-in safeguard against the guidelines consuming most of a modest paycheck.

What Counts as Income

Because your percentage of the obligation depends on your share of combined income, how income is defined matters a lot. Florida’s definition is broad. It covers salary, wages, and bonuses, but also self-employment income (after ordinary business expenses), disability benefits, Social Security, pension payments, rental income, interest and dividends, workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, and reimbursed expenses that reduce your living costs.¹ Gains from selling property count unless the gain is a one-time event. Alimony you receive from a previous marriage gets added to your gross income for this purpose.

Deductions That Get You to Net

Only specific items reduce gross income before the schedule is applied:

Federal, state, and local income taxes, adjusted for your actual filing status and dependents
Social Security and Medicare taxes, or self-employment tax
Mandatory union dues
Mandatory retirement contributions
Health insurance premiums for yourself (not the child’s coverage)
Court-ordered support for other children that you actually pay
Alimony paid under a court order from a previous or current marriage

Voluntary 401(k) contributions, car payments, credit card debt, and ordinary living expenses are not deductible for child support purposes.¹

Add-Ons That Sit on Top of the Base

The schedule amount isn’t the final number. Childcare costs necessary for a parent’s employment and the child’s health and dental insurance premiums are added on top of the base obligation, then split in proportion to each parent’s income share. The parent who actually pays the premium or the childcare bill gets credit for it against their obligation.¹ Uninsured medical, dental, and psychological expenses for the child are typically split the same way.

How Parenting Time Changes the Number

The standard formula assumes one parent has the child most of the year. When a parent has the child for at least 20% of the overnights in a year, which works out to 73 nights, a different calculation applies. Florida calls this substantial time-sharing.¹

Under the substantial time-sharing formula, each parent’s share of the base obligation is multiplied by 1.5 to reflect that both households carry real costs for the child. Each parent’s adjusted amount is then multiplied by the percentage of overnights the child spends with the other parent, and the difference between those two figures is the transfer payment. Childcare and health insurance are then credited or debited on top.¹

The 1.5 multiplier often surprises people, but it doesn’t mean you pay 50% more. Because each parent’s multiplied obligation gets reduced by the other parent’s time-sharing percentage, the final transfer typically ends up lower than it would under the standard formula for the higher earner. That’s the design: when both parents carry day-to-day expenses, the cash moving between them shrinks.

Imputed Income if You’re Not Working

Quitting a job or deliberately working below your earning capacity won’t lower your child support. If a court finds a parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the judge assigns an income figure based on what that parent could be earning, considering work history, qualifications, and the local job market.¹

If a parent fails to show up for the proceeding or refuses to provide financial information, the court automatically assigns income equal to the national median for full-time workers based on Census Bureau data. The parent arguing for a different number has the burden of proving what the other could actually earn. Incarceration cannot be treated as voluntary unemployment when establishing or modifying a support order. One exception to imputation: the court can decline to impute income if a parent needs to stay home with the child who is the subject of the calculation.

When a Judge Can Deviate

The number produced by the guidelines is presumptive, meaning the court treats it as correct unless there’s a specific reason to go higher or lower. A judge can move the amount up or down by 5% without a written explanation, as long as the judge considers the child’s needs and each parent’s finances. Anything larger than 5% requires a written finding that the standard amount would be unjust or inappropriate.¹

The statute lists the reasons that can justify a larger deviation:

Extraordinary medical, psychological, educational, or dental expenses
The child’s own income, excluding Supplemental Security Income
Seasonal income swings for a parent whose earnings fluctuate
Special needs costs the family has historically covered
Total assets of either parent or the child
The 55% cap on current support from a single order

All of these inputs feed into an official document called the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet, Florida Family Law Form 12.902(e), which walks through gross income, deductions, combined net income, the schedule lookup, add-ons, and parenting time.² Running your own numbers through that worksheet is the only way to turn “my percentage of combined income” into the actual dollar figure a Florida court would order.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 61.30 – Child Support Guidelines
2
Florida State Courts. Child Support Guidelines Worksheet