Court Orders

Setting Payment Amounts

Revised January 2010

Please note that the guideline changes are not a "substantial change in circumstances" for having a support order reviewed or changed.

The Percentage of Income Standard provides guidelines to Wisconsin courts for setting payment amounts for child support and medical support.  These guidelines are based on the belief that both parents are responsible for supporting their children, whether they live together or not.

The child support guidelines are based on:

• the parent’s income
• the time a child spends with each parent
• whether a parent is supporting other children

In special cases, the court may use the Percentage Standard or may use one or more other guidelines to set support:  Special cases involve:

• parents who share placement of their children (the court order states that the parents will share the placement of their children at least 25% of the time - at least 92 days/year)
• parents who support more than one family (serial families)
• parents who split the placement of their children (the court order gives one parent the placement of one or more children and gives the other parent placement of the other children )
• parents with a low income
• parents with a high income

A court may order a parent to pay more or less than the amounts set by the Percentage Standard if the court decides that the Standard would be unfair to the child or one of the parents. The court must note the reason for not using the guidelines.

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