Child support in Hawaii.
What the state’s own guideline says, where the number comes from, and the one figure that moves it more than anything you will argue about.
See a different stateHawaii
Hawaii is an income shares state with an unusual twist. The court converts each parent's gross income to net income using its own tax tables, then builds a 'child support need' from a base amount plus child care plus health insurance. Anything left over after that gets a Standard of Living Adjustment (SOLA), so the children share in a higher-earning parent's surplus. The total is then split between the parents in proportion to their net incomes.
How Hawaii works out the number
Authority: Hawai‘i Child Support Guidelines (2024 revision, Rev. 2/2024), adopted by the Family Courts of the State of Hawai‘i under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 576D-7Hawaii sets real numbers. Sole physical custody means the other parent has 143 or fewer overnights a year. 'Extensive Time-Sharing' is more than 143 but fewer than 183 overnights, and support is reduced on a per-overnight Adjustment Rate calculated across the 40-night band between 143 and 183. 'Equal Time-Sharing' is approximately 183 overnights each. So 144 overnights is the number that starts moving the needle.
Use the state’s own calculator, not ours
Hawaii publishes this itself, free. It is called Child Support Guidelines Worksheet (CSG Worksheet), plus the Extensive Time-Sharing Worksheet, the Exceptional Circumstances Form, the Non-Taxable & Net Sel. We are not going to build a competing calculator and ask you to trust it — this is the one a judge will recognize.
Open the Hawaii calculator →What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
The guidelines list gross income as including 'Employment salaries and wages, tips, commissions, bonuses, profit sharing'; 'Income from overtime and additional jobs'; spousal support received; interest, dividends and capital gains; Social Security (but not SSI); 'Military base and special pay and allowances, such as basic allowance for housing (BAH)'; 'Business income from closely held entities including corporations, S corporations, LLC'; 'Fringe benefits, such as use of company car, free housing and reimbursed expenses'; and 'Income from self-employment or ownership in a business enterprise.' Excluded: spousal support paid, TANF, SSI, food stamps, Section 8 housing allowances. Overtime, bonuses and second jobs are all in by name.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
'Imputed income may be used in limited circumstances after calculating child support based upon a parent's actual monthly gross income. Imputed income is the exception, not the rule.' The court may impute 'when a parent is not employed full-time or is employed below full earning capacity,' and must make findings on whether the parent is below capacity, the reasons for the limited employment and their record of seeking work, and the factors used to set the number (employment and earnings history, job skills, criminal record). 'Incarceration shall not be considered voluntary unemployment in establishing or modifying an order of support.'
If you do not earn much
A self-support reserve of $1,693 is deducted from a parent's net income as after-tax poverty-level self-support. The minimum child support is $91 per month per child, though exceptional circumstances can change it. Support that would exceed 70% of net income is itself listed as a possible exceptional circumstance.
Childcare and health insurance
Child care expenses 'are those actually paid and are needed to allow the parents to work or attend vocational education or training' — they are built into the support need and then each parent is credited for what they actually pay. An order for health insurance or cash medical support must be issued. Private health insurance is 'reasonable' if it does not exceed 10% of net income. Where private coverage is unavailable, unreasonable in cost, or inaccessible, one parent may be ordered to pay cash medical support of 10% of that parent's net income.
Private school, special needs, activities
Private school gets its own line item: 'PEX is the cost to attend a private school. PEX includes tuition, books, and required school fees. PEX starts at Kindergarten and continues through graduation from high school.' Special needs are handled as an exceptional circumstance — 'When the subject children have, or a parent has, extraordinary needs (e.g., special educational and/or housing needs for a physically or emotionally disabled child), there may be an exceptional circumstance.'
When a judge can depart from the number
'The party requesting a deviation from the presumptive child support amount has the burden of proving that exceptional circumstances exist and that the circumstances warrant a departure.' The court must make oral findings on the record stating the presumptive guideline amount, explaining why it is unjust or inappropriate, and confirming it considered the children's best interests. Things that are NOT exceptional circumstances, per the guidelines: remarriage and step-children, visitation expenses, and heavy debt.
Two surprises. First, college. Hawaii is one of the few states where a judge can order a parent to keep paying for a child who is in college full time, typically up to about age 23 — and that authority exists whether or not you agreed to it in your divorce. Plan for it. Second, private school tuition (PEX) is a named, structured input in the Hawaii worksheet, not an afterthought, and it runs from kindergarten through high school graduation. If your children are in private school, that number goes into the math from the start.
Later on
When it ends
Support ordinarily ends at the age of majority. Hawaii is unusual in what comes next — see the next field.
College and support after 18
Yes, and it is a real possibility, not a technicality. 'Before or after the children reach the age of majority, the Court may establish, modify, and enforce an order for the support, maintenance, and education of adult children.' Support can be ordered for an adult child 'enrolled full-time (or have been accepted into and plan to attend full-time) at an accredited school, community college, college or university to obtain an undergraduate or combined/dual/joint/concurrent degree, or vocational or trade school.' The guidelines add that support 'generally terminates for an adult child before or at the age of 23,' decided case by case. The state child support agencies (CSEA and OCSH) can only order support before majority; only the court can extend it. Support for an incompetent or disabled adult child can also be established or modified before or after majority.
Changing the amount later
If the order is three years old or more, either parent can ask for a review and adjustment without proving anything changed. Under three years, you must show 'a substantial and material change in circumstance.' There is also a shortcut: 'A material change in circumstances will be presumed if support as calculated pursuant to the Guidelines is either ten percent (10%) more or less than the support amount in the existing support order. However, the presumption is not necessarily determinative.'
How far back a change can reach
We could not confirm this state’s rule on how far back an order or a change can be applied. It matters: in some states the clock starts the day you file, so filing late costs money you do not get back.
What we could not confirm
- We could not confirm how far back a Hawaii modification or a first order can reach, or Hawaii's official enforcement tools (license suspension, interest on arrears), because the state legislature's website blocked us. Ask the Hawaii Child Support Enforcement Agency or the Family Court self-help center about the effective date of a modification and about what happens if payments fall behind.
- 1 official page we tried to read refused automated access. We did not try to get around the block, so some detail above comes from a different official source rather than the one we would have preferred.
Compare all fifty states
The overnight thresholds, the ending ages and the college rules, side by side.
The rest of what we have written about Hawaii. Every figure is quoted from Hawaii’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.