Wyoming Child Support Calculator: Income, Custody, Adjustments

The Wyoming child support calculator at childsupport.wyoming.gov gives you a free estimate of the monthly support a court would likely order, based on each parent’s net income, the custody arrangement, and the number of children.¹ The result isn’t binding on a judge, but it runs on the same statutory tables courts use under Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-304, so in most cases the estimate lands close to the real order.

What You Need Before You Open the Calculator

The tool asks for four things:

Each parent’s monthly net income (not gross).
The custody type: basic, shared, or split.
The number of children covered by the order.
The number of overnights per year each parent has with the child.

Get these right and the output will track what a judge would calculate. Get them wrong, especially the income figure, and the number is meaningless. The Wyoming Judicial Branch also publishes a paper Child Support Computation Worksheet that walks through the same math by hand if you’d rather see every step.²

How Wyoming Defines Income

Under Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-303, income means any form of payment or return in money or in kind, from any source. That sweeps in wages, salary, commissions, self-employment earnings, unemployment benefits, worker’s compensation, disability payments, annuity and retirement benefits, and essentially any other payment a person receives.³ Means-tested benefits such as SNAP, SSI, and Pell grants are excluded.

Overtime is a special case. Courts leave overtime out unless the parent has earned it consistently over the previous 24 months and it’s likely to continue.³ If you’re entering a figure that includes a recent run of overtime, be ready to defend it or strip it out.

Getting to Net Income

The calculator uses net, not gross. Wyoming subtracts these items from gross income to get there:

Federal and state personal income tax withholdings.
Social Security and Medicare (FICA) deductions.
Mandatory pension contributions, meaning employer-required retirement withholdings rather than voluntary 401(k) contributions.
Health insurance premiums paid to cover the children.
Preexisting child support orders currently being paid for other children.
Other court-ordered obligations currently being paid, such as spousal support.

Payments toward child support arrears don’t reduce net income for this calculation.³ Voluntary expenses like car loans or credit card bills don’t either.

If a Parent Is Unemployed or Underemployed

A parent can’t lower their support by quitting a job or working less than they could. When a court finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, it can assign that parent a “potential income” based on work history, education, job skills, the local job market, and whether the imputed amount is realistic to earn.⁴ The presence of young children in the home who limit a parent’s ability to work is also weighed. If you suspect imputation will come up in your case, run the calculator twice: once with actual income and once with what a judge might reasonably impute.

How Custody Type Changes the Number

The calculator’s custody field isn’t cosmetic. Each of the three options uses a different formula.

Basic Custody

When one parent has the child more than 75% of overnights, the standard formula applies. Both parents’ net incomes are combined, that figure is looked up on the § 20-2-304 table for the right number of children, and the noncustodial parent pays their proportional share. If one parent earns 60% of the combined income, that parent owes 60% of the total obligation.⁵

Shared Custody

When each parent has the child for at least 25% of annual overnights (roughly 91 nights), the shared custody formula applies.⁵ The standard obligation is multiplied by 150% to account for the cost of maintaining two homes with room for the child, then each parent’s share is adjusted by both income percentage and time spent with the other parent. The parent with the larger obligation pays the difference.⁶ Crossing that 25% overnight line changes the result significantly, so count carefully.

Split Custody

Split custody applies when each parent has primary custody of at least one child. The calculator runs the formula separately for each child based on who has custody of that child, then offsets the two obligations. The parent with the larger figure pays the net difference.⁶

Why the Court’s Number Might Not Match

The guideline amount is called “presumptive” because judges presume it’s correct, but they can order more or less when applying the guidelines would be unjust. Any deviation has to be explained on the record with specific reasons.⁴ The factors courts consider include:

The child’s age and any special health care or educational needs.
Daycare costs and transportation expenses for visitation.
Either parent’s responsibility for supporting other children.
Health insurance availability through a parent’s employer.
The time each parent spends with the child beyond what the standard formula captures.
Pregnancy-related expenses when the parents were never married or divorced before the child’s birth.
Whether either parent is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed.
Violation of divorce decree provisions, including visitation orders, if the court considers it relevant.

The parent asking for a deviation carries the burden of showing why the guidelines don’t fit. A general feeling that the number is too high won’t persuade a judge.

The Self-Support Reserve for Low Incomes

Wyoming caps orders that would push a paying parent below the federal poverty line for one person. Under § 20-2-304(f), if the gap between that parent’s net income and the one-person poverty guideline is smaller than the calculated obligation, the order is reduced to that gap.⁷ The poverty guideline sits around $1,330 per month and updates annually through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A parent netting $1,800 a month would owe no more than $470, regardless of the table result.

A Note on Abatement for Extended Visits

Under Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-305, a noncustodial parent who has the child for 15 or more consecutive days can claim an abatement equal to half the daily support obligation for each qualifying day, filed with the clerk of court within 30 days of the child’s return and accompanied by a $10 fee.⁸ Orders entered after July 1, 2018 may not include abatement provisions, since the revised shared custody formula absorbed much of what abatement used to do. The calculator doesn’t model this; it’s a separate claim against an existing order.

Changing the Number Later

If you want to see what a modification might look like, run the calculator with updated figures and compare. Under Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-311, either parent can petition to modify when a fresh calculation differs from the current order by 20% or more. That gap creates a statutory presumption of changed circumstances. A parent generally has to wait at least six months after the original order or last modification to file, absent extraordinary circumstances.

Separately, every three years either parent can request a review and adjustment without showing any change in circumstances and without meeting the 20% threshold. You just ask.

A custody shift can trigger modification on its own. Parenting time that crosses the 25% overnight line flips the case from the basic formula to the shared formula, which usually moves the support amount well past the 20% threshold.

One trap worth flagging: modifications aren’t retroactive. The new amount takes effect no earlier than the date the other parent is served with your petition. If you lose your job in January and don’t file until June, you still owe the old amount for those five months.

1
Wyoming Child Support Services. Wyoming Child Support Calculator
2
Wyoming Judicial Branch. Child Support Computation Form and Net Income Calculation
3
Justia. Wyoming Code 20-2-303 – Definitions
4
FindLaw. Wyoming Code 20-2-307 – Deviation From Presumptive Child Support
5
Justia. Wyoming Code 20-2-304 – Presumptive Child Support
6
Wyoming Judicial Branch. Child Support Computation Net Income Calculation
7
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Code Title 20 – Domestic Relations
8
Justia. Wyoming Code 20-2-305 – Abatements