# Pennsylvania child support guidelines and overnights

> How Pennsylvania calculates child support: the income shares schedule effective January 2026, the 40 percent overnight rule, add-on expenses, and college costs.

Pennsylvania runs child support on the income shares model, which starts from a simple idea: work out what an intact household at your combined income would spend on your children, then split that number between you in proportion to what each of you earns.

The schedule that turns income into a dollar figure was replaced on January 1, 2026. If someone quotes you a number from an older table, it is wrong.

## How is child support calculated in Pennsylvania?

Four moves.

1. **Work out each parent's monthly net income.** Gross income from every source, minus a short list of deductions.
2. **Add them together** to get combined monthly net income.
3. **Look up the basic obligation** in the schedule in [Rule 1910.16-3](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-3.html), by combined income and number of children.
4. **Split it in proportion to income.** Each parent's percentage of the combined monthly net income is their percentage of the basic obligation, and the parent without primary custody pays their share to the other.

The guideline figure is presumed correct. [Rule 1910.16-1(d)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-1.html) makes it a rebuttable presumption that can only be displaced by a written finding, or a finding on the record, that the guideline amount would be unjust or inappropriate in your case.

Behind all of it is [section 4322](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=43), which requires a statewide guideline based on the reasonable needs of the child and the payer's ability to pay, with primary emphasis on net incomes and earning capacities, reviewed at least every four years.

### What is the Pennsylvania child support schedule?

A grid. The vertical axis is combined monthly net income, running from $1,300 up to $30,000, and the horizontal axis is the number of children, one through six. The current version was amended on August 11, 2025 and took effect on January 1, 2026.

At the top of the schedule, a combined monthly net income of $30,000 produces a basic obligation of $3,749 for one child, $4,981 for two, $5,803 for three, $6,482 for four, $7,130 for five and $7,750 for six.

The first $250 per year per child of unreimbursed medical expenses is already built into those numbers, which is why only expenses above that threshold get allocated separately.

### What is monthly net income for Pennsylvania child support?

Gross income minus five deductions and nothing else. [Rule 1910.16-2(c)(1)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-2.html) allows federal, state and local income taxes; unemployment compensation taxes and Local Services Taxes; F.I.C.A. payments and non-voluntary retirement payments; mandatory union dues; and alimony paid to the other party.

Gross income is much wider. [Rule 1910.16-2(a)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-2.html) counts wages, salaries, bonuses, fees and commissions; net income from a business or from dealings in property; interest, rents, royalties and dividends; pensions and all forms of retirement; income from an estate or trust; Social Security disability and retirement benefits, disability benefits, workers' compensation and unemployment compensation; alimony where the court finds it appropriate to include it; and other entitlements including lottery winnings, tax refunds, insurance settlements, awards and verdicts. It is ordinarily based on at least a six-month average.

Public assistance and SSI benefits are excluded outright.

### What if a parent quits their job or is underemployed?

Pennsylvania imputes income, with guardrails. Under [Rule 1910.16-2(d)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-2.html), where a party fails to obtain or maintain appropriate employment, the court imputes income equal to that party's earning capacity. It may not impute an earning capacity greater than what the party could earn from one full-time position, and it has to state the reasons for its assessment in writing or on the record.

A voluntary decrease in income is simply not credited. Taking a lower paying job, quitting, leaving employment, changing occupations, going back to school, or being fired for willful misconduct will not reduce an existing order. An involuntary decrease from illness, layoff, termination, incarceration or job elimination will.

## Does 50/50 custody mean no child support in Pennsylvania?

Not necessarily, but it changes the arithmetic substantially.

**At 40 percent or more of the overnights**, [Rule 1910.16-4(c)(1)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-4.html) creates a rebuttable presumption that the payer is entitled to a reduction, to reflect the money they spend directly on the child during their own time. The formula is mechanical: take the payer's percentage of annual overnights, subtract 30 percentage points, and subtract that difference from the payer's percentage share of the basic obligation.

So a parent with 40 percent of the overnights and a 60 percent income share pays on 50 percent rather than 60. At 50 percent of the overnights the subtraction is 20 points.

**At exactly equal overnights**, [Rule 1910.16-4(c)(2)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-4.html) adds three protections. The shared custody formula applies only if the payer is the parent with the higher monthly net income. The lower earner is never ordered to pay basic child support to the higher earner, though they can still be ordered to contribute to add-on expenses. And if the calculation would leave the recipient with a larger share of the combined monthly net income than the payer, the court equalizes the combined income between the households and awards no spousal support or alimony pendente lite at all.

That last rule is worth reading twice if you are negotiating both custody and support at once. The [spousal support chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/spousal-support-and-apl) covers the interaction from the other side.

## What expenses get added to Pennsylvania child support?

The schedule covers ordinary child-rearing. [Rule 1910.16-6](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-6.html) handles the rest, allocated in proportion to income:

- **Child care** reasonably needed to keep a job or pursue education in pursuit of income, reduced first by the federal child care tax credit available to the eligible parent, whether or not that parent actually claims it
- **Health insurance premiums**, including the portion attributable to the parent paying them, with the other parent's share added to or deducted from the basic obligation
- **Unreimbursed medical expenses** above $250 per person per year, covering co-payments, deductibles, and expenses reasonably incurred for necessary medical, surgical, dental, optical, psychiatric and psychological services and orthodontia, but not cosmetic or chiropractic services unless the order specifically says so
- **Private school tuition, summer camp, and other expenses** related to the child's educational, extracurricular or developmental activities, where the court finds them reasonable under the circumstances

Two documentation deadlines come with those. Child care receipts go to the other parent promptly after you receive them. Medical receipts go promptly and in any case no later than March 31 of the year after the calendar year the final bill arrived. Miss either and the court has discretion not to allocate the expense at all.

Health coverage is at a "reasonable cost" to the payer if the premium does not exceed 5 percent of their monthly net income and, added to the basic obligation and any other ordered expenses, does not exceed 50 percent of it.

## What about high incomes in Pennsylvania?

Above $30,000 in combined monthly net income the schedule runs out and [Rule 1910.16-3.1](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.16-3.1.html) takes over with a three-step process.

First, a preliminary figure: the amount at $30,000 plus a percentage of everything above it. That percentage is 4.0 percent for one or two children, 4.7 percent for three, 5.3 percent for four, 5.8 percent for five and 6.3 percent for six. Then the shared custody adjustment, if the overnights support one. Then a reasonable-needs analysis, in which the court considers the deviation factors, the add-on expenses and both parties' expense statements, and may adjust the number up or down.

There is a floor under all of it. The obligation may never come out less than what the schedule produces at $30,000, no matter what the reasonable-needs analysis says. The [high-asset chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/high-asset-divorce) covers what proving income looks like when it comes from a business rather than a paycheck.

## How long does child support last in Pennsylvania?

To 18, or high school graduation, whichever comes later. [Section 4321(2)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=43) makes parents liable for the support of unemancipated children 18 years of age or younger, and paragraph (3) allows liability for children over 18.

The ending is administrative rather than automatic. Under [Rule 1910.19(e)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1910/s1910.19.html), within six months before the child turns 18 the domestic relations section sends the receiving parent an emancipation inquiry asking about the child's date of birth, graduation or withdrawal from high school, whether the child has left the household, whether the parents agreed to payments past 18, and whether the child has special needs that would justify continuing support. If the inquiry is not returned within 30 days, or there is no agreement and no special needs, the office terminates the charging order without further proceedings on the later of the child's 18th birthday or high school graduation. Arrears accrued to that date survive.

### Do you have to pay for college in Pennsylvania?

Sometimes, which puts Pennsylvania in a minority of states. Under [section 4327](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=43), a court may order either or both separated, divorced or unmarried parents to provide equitably for a child's postsecondary educational costs, whether the application is made before or after the child turns 18.

The statute also fences it in:

- The award comes only after the student has made reasonable efforts to apply for scholarships, grants and work-study assistance
- Grants and scholarships are deducted from the educational costs before anything is allocated
- The court weighs both parents' financial resources, the student's resources, loans and other assistance, the student's ability, willingness and desire to complete the course of study, any willful estrangement the student caused after reaching majority, and the student's ability to contribute through employment
- No order may issue where undue financial hardship would result to the parent, where the costs are for post-college graduate education, or where the order would extend support past the student's 23rd birthday, unless exceptional circumstances exist

Modifying an existing support order takes a petition that specifically avers the material and substantial change it rests on, and a new guideline amount produced by revised guidelines can itself be that change.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/child-support