Hi there and welcome back. We’ve been looking at an amazing study conducted recently by Custody X Change, a software used to develop custody agreements and help parents track parenting schedules. As we mentioned in the previous article, the researchers created a fictional family and entered their data (which represented a financial average for the nation) into their system, once for every state. The answers, if you remember, were astoundingly diverse, and ranged from monthly payments of $402 to $1,187. But why?

Political leanings don’t seem to have any bearing on amounts

The first thing they established was that cost of living didn’t have any bearing on the amounts awarded. But what about political leanings? Apparently not. As it turns out, a state’s political leanings has nothing to do with the amount of child support they award to mothers with primary custody. In this study, the average amount of child support awarded to the hypothetical mother by Republican and Democratic states was only $13 apart.

So what is the factor that influences child support amounts, and why?

In the end, the study was somewhat inconclusive. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reasons for why certain states awarded more or less than others, as the way child support is calculated isn’t standardized across all 50 states. For example, there are four states where the mother’s income isn’t considered when calculating child support, namely Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Texas. Whereas, states that take into account the mother’s earnings tend to offer smaller payments to working moms. But even that wasn’t uniform across the board.

What states offered the highest, and the lowest payments?

The fictional mother in this study received the highest child support payments from Massachusetts, Nevada and New Hampshire, but received the lowest from Oregon, West Virginia and Virginia. And where did Michigan rank in this hypothetical study? Somewhere near the middle – number 30 – with a recommended monthly payment of $666. That’s about half of the highest amount suggested ($1,187 from Massachusetts) and about 50% more than the lowest amount ($402 from Virginia)

Figuring out child support in Michigan can take a lot of work

Child support is often a controversial subject during a divorce, and can cause a great deal of grief when a divorcing couple doesn’t agree on the amount. Sometimes the only way to solve this issue is to let your attorney handle it on your behalf. So if you anticipate any struggle over the issue of child support, make sure you have a hard working and understanding family law attorney on your side. Call 866 766 5245 today, and talk to someone at The Kronzek Firm. We’re here to help.