Child Support If You Make $500 a Week in Maryland
Maryland builds its income protection directly into the schedule numbers themselves, not as a separate rule. This page shows how that plays out at $500 a week.
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Guideline child support scenarios at $500 a week
The paying parent earns $500 a week ($2,166.67 a month) in every cell below. The other parent's monthly income changes across rows, and the number of children changes across columns; both genuinely change the result.Every figure is computed with the real Maryland guideline engine, the same one behind the full calculator, not a lookup table built for this page.
| Other parent's income | 1 child | 2 children | 3 children |
|---|---|---|---|
| No reported income | $583.00 | $856.00 | $1,034.00 |
| $2,000 a month | $480.48 | $705.12 | $852.28 |
| $4,000 a month | $392.11 | $561.11 | $672.14 |
| $6,000 a month | $356.84 | $499.04 | $598.80 |
Every dollar figure is a monthly amount, the presumptive guideline result before add-ons like child care or health insurance and before any court deviation. "Not available" means the engine behind this site declined to compute that specific combination rather than guess; the reason is shown next to it.
A reserve built into the schedule cells
Some states carve out a self-support reserve as a separate calculation step. Maryland does it differently: certain low-income cells on the § 12-204(e) schedule are asterisked and already carry a self-support reserve adjustment baked into the printed dollar figure, based on 110 percent of the 2019 federal poverty level.
At $500 a week, gross pay is about $2,167 a month. Depending on the other parent income in a given row, the combined total can land in a part of the schedule where this asterisked adjustment applies, meaning the number in the table is already lower than a straight income-shares percentage would produce.
What the asterisk means in practice
Where a row in the table lands on one of the asterisked schedule cells, the figure already reflects the built-in self-support reserve adjustment rather than a raw percentage of combined income. A court can still deviate further in that zone, or decline to establish an order at all for an incarcerated, institutionalized, or no-resource parent, situations this table does not evaluate.
What this estimate includes
- The § 12-204(e) schedule, including asterisked self-support reserve cells
- Worksheet A's income-share allocation for 1, 2, or 3 children
- Maryland's round-up-to-the-next-row lookup rule
What it leaves out
- Court deviations in the self-support reserve zone
- A finding that a parent is incarcerated, institutionalized, or has no resources
- Child care and health insurance add-ons
Worth knowing
The 110 percent of the 2019 federal poverty level basis for the reserve is a fixed historical reference point written into the schedule itself, not a figure that automatically updates every year the way some other states self-support reserves do.
A parent near the boundary of the asterisked zone should not assume a small income change leaves the number roughly the same. Maryland round-up rule, discussed on other pages in this series, can shift a borderline income to a meaningfully different schedule row.
Frequently asked questions
How does Maryland protect low-income parents?
Rather than a separate reserve calculation, Maryland bakes a self-support reserve adjustment directly into certain low-income cells of the § 12-204(e) schedule, based on 110 percent of the 2019 federal poverty level. Those cells are marked with an asterisk in the official schedule text.
Does $500 a week land in the asterisked zone?
It depends on the other parent income and the number of children in a given row of the table above; some combinations land on asterisked cells and some do not. Each row reflects whichever schedule cell the actual combined income and child count point to.
Can a court still adjust the number in the reserve zone?
Yes. Even within the self-support reserve zone, § 12-202(a)(2)(iii)3 allows a court to deviate when the obligor income is below 110 percent of the federal poverty level, and § 12-202(c) lets a court decline to establish an order for an incarcerated, institutionalized, or no-resource obligor.
What worksheet does this page use?
Worksheet A, form CC-DR-034, for primary physical custody. Maryland has a separate Worksheet B for shared physical custody, which uses a different multiplier and cross-weighting formula not shown on this page.
Does the other parent income matter in Maryland?
Yes. Maryland is an income-shares state: combined adjusted actual income from both parents drives the schedule lookup, and each parent share of that combined total determines their portion of the resulting obligation.
Where can I check the exact schedule cell for my income?
The full Maryland child support calculator on this site runs the same § 12-204(e) schedule, flags asterisked cells explicitly, and notes when the round-up lookup rule applies.
About the numbers on this page
Every figure in the table above comes from running the real Maryland child support engine on this site, the same engine and data pack behind the full Maryland child support calculator. Nothing on this page is a separate estimate or a reimplementation of the math. See the sources below for the statutes and official worksheets behind the Maryland guideline.
Reviewed by SupportDecode Editorial Team Page content reviewed Sources Methodology Update log
Changelog: page first published as part of the child support by income series. Material changes are dated in the update log.