Oregon child support calculator

Oregon follows the income-shares model, on adjusted income rather than gross: deductions for non-joint children, spousal support and union dues come off first. The parents’ adjusted incomes are combined, the Obligation Scale gives the total the two of them owe, and each is responsible for the share matching their percentage of that combined figure. What makes Oregon distinctive is what happens next — the obligation is trimmed by a parenting time credit keyed to overnights, and then capped so that no parent is left below a self-support reserve.

The Obligation Scale is the appendix to the guideline rules. For each number of children — one to ten — and each band of combined adjusted monthly income, it gives the total the two parents together owe. It starts with a single $0–$1,000 band and then steps in $50 increments to $30,000 a month: 581 bands in all. Where combined income falls between two amounts, the lower governs; above $30,000 the obligation stays at the $30,000 figure, and for more than ten children it stays at the ten-child figure. The scale’s shaded region is where it has already been adjusted for the self-support reserve, which is why the one-child column flattens out around $1,350 a month while the others keep climbing.

Oregon’s floor is unusually explicit. A parent’s available income is their adjusted income less a self-support reserve of $1,729 a month — the federal poverty guideline for one person times 1.303, updated annually — and their total obligation, counting basic support, child care, health insurance and cash medical together, may not exceed it. Underneath that sits a rebuttable presumption that an obligated parent can pay at least $100 a month, which does not apply where the parents split time exactly evenly, where only medical support is ordered, or where the parent’s sole income is disability benefits, is incarcerated, or receives public benefits. Child care is allowable only up to published per-child maxima that vary by the child’s age and whether the provider is in a metropolitan area, and health coverage is reasonable in cost at up to 4% of combined adjusted income.

Oregon has no threshold to cross — the parenting time credit under OAR 137-050-0730 applies on a sliding basis from the parents’ annual average overnights, and is subtracted from each parent’s obligation before the two are netted to decide who pays. Because it needs the overnight count, this calculator computes the obligation before the credit, so treat the figure as the starting point rather than the finished order.

It reads the Obligation Scale, splits by percentage share of adjusted income, adds child care and health coverage, and applies the self-support reserve cap and the $100 minimum order. It does not compute adjusted income from gross, run the parenting time credit, cap child care at the Table 1 maxima, run the reasonable-cost test on health coverage, apply the reduction for Social Security or Veterans’ benefits, or decide which parent ends up paying. For a figure you can file, use the Child Support Program’s own calculator or consult an attorney.