Child support in Michigan.
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 stateMichigan
Michigan combines both parents' net incomes, looks up what a family at that income level spends on that number of children, and splits it by income share. Michigan is unusual in that the rules live in a manual issued by the State Court Administrative Office rather than in a statute, and in that parenting time is folded in by a continuous mathematical formula rather than a threshold.
How Michigan works out the number
Authority: 2025 Michigan Child Support Formula Manual, effective January 1, 2025, together with the January 2025 Michigan Child Support Formula Supplement (which carries the dollar figures and is updated annually). The manual exists because MCL 552.519(3)(a)(vi) requires the state friend of the court bureau to develop the child support formula.Michigan does not use a cliff. Section 3.03(C) says to 'apply the parental time offset to adjust a base support obligation whenever the approximate annual number of overnights that each parent will likely provide care for the children-in-common can be determined.' The offset runs on a curve using each parent's annual overnights raised to the power 2.5, so support shifts gradually as overnights rise rather than jumping at a magic number. If you have read that Michigan has a 128-overnight threshold, that is not in the 2025 manual.
There is a worksheet, but no calculator
Michigan publishes Michigan does not publish a standard fill-in child support worksheet for the public. and expects you to work through it by hand. Anyone selling you a paid calculator for this state is selling you arithmetic the court already published.
What goes into the calculation
What counts as income
Section 2.01 defines income broadly to include 'wages, overtime pay, commissions, bonuses, or other monies from all employers' plus self-employment earnings. Actual overtime, second-job pay and shift premiums count as income when the parent is already working full time. Self-employment income is calculated after legitimate business expenses.
When a judge can treat you as earning more
Michigan is stricter than most states about this. Before imputing, the court must find both that the parent has an actual ability to earn the imputed amount and that there is a reasonable likelihood of earning it, working through seven enumerated factors – prior employment history, education, physical and mental disabilities, local wage rates, diligence in seeking work and more. The manual expressly forbids generalized assumptions, such as simply plugging in full-time minimum wage, imputing without evidence, or failing to explain how each factor applies to this parent.
If you do not earn much
Section 3.02(C): 'When a parent's net income does not exceed the Low Income Threshold, the parent's base support obligation is 10 percent of that parent's income.' Above the threshold a transition formula phases in the regular amount. The threshold dollar figure is not in the manual – it lives in the Supplement, which is reissued every January. The manual sets no dollar minimum order; it mentions $20 only as a point at which enforcement may be waived.
Childcare and health insurance
Child care under § 3.06 covers 'the actual child care expenses for the children in the case under consideration which allow a parent or nonparent-custodian to look for employment, retain employment, or to attend an educational program to improve employment opportunities,' allocated by income share. Michigan presumes the need for child care ends when the child turns 13 – 'presume that the need for child care continues until the last day of the month the child is under the age of 13.' Ordinary medical costs are handled by a presumed annual amount per child from the Ordinary Medical Expense Average Table in the Supplement, built into the order. Costs above that presumed amount are 'additional (extra-ordinary) medical expenses,' apportioned by income share.
Private school, special needs, activities
Section 1.04(E) lists eighteen deviation factors, including special needs and extraordinary educational expenses. The manual is careful to say that 'the existence of a deviation factor does not require the Court to deviate.'
When a judge can depart from the number
A court 'may exercise its discretion … [to] deviate from the formula' when 'applying the formula would lead to an unjust or inappropriate result.' The judge must state on the record '(a) its reasons for finding that the formula would produce an unjust or inappropriate result' and '(b) the information required by MCL 552.605(2)' – which includes what the formula amount would have been.
Two surprises. First, there is no free public Michigan calculator – the state publishes a manual and lets Friend of the Court offices run the software, so the number you get from any website you find online is somebody's private guess at the formula. Second, Michigan's parenting time adjustment is a smooth curve, not a threshold, so every extra overnight moves the number a little; there is no single night that changes everything.
Later on
When it ends
Support ends at 18 unless the court extends it. Under MCL 552.605b(2) it can continue past 18 only if all four are true: the child is regularly attending high school full time; there is a reasonable expectation the child will graduate; the child resides full time with the recipient of support or at an institution; and 'in no case after the child reaches 19 years and 6 months of age.' Even when all four are met, extending support is discretionary, not automatic. Orders must terminate on the last day of a specified month, which is why so many Michigan orders end on May 31 or June 30 regardless of the actual graduation date.
College and support after 18
No. Michigan courts cannot order a parent to pay for college. Post-majority support is limited to finishing high school under MCL 552.605b. Where a child is dual-enrolled, only the hours counting toward the high school diploma count as full-time attendance.
Changing the amount later
For the Friend of the Court's periodic review, § 4.05 sets the threshold at '10 percent of the currently ordered support payment … or $50 per month, whichever is greater.' If the recommended amount differs from the current order by more than that, 'the friend of the court office must petition the court to modify the order.'
How far back a change can reach
Michigan law sharply limits retroactive changes. The manual points to that statutory restriction and warns that 'due to the statutory restriction to retroactively modifying a final judgment or order, an action to modify support should start as soon as possible.' Treat that as the practical rule: the clock starts when you file, not when your income dropped.
If someone stops paying
Support is administered by the Friend of the Court office in each county along with the state's IV-D program. We could not open Michigan's legislature website to confirm the license-suspension and interest provisions, so none are stated here.
What we could not confirm
- The dollar figures that matter most – the Low Income Threshold and the presumed ordinary medical amount per child – live in the annual Supplement, and that document would not open for us. Ask your Friend of the Court office for the current Supplement figures, and confirm the exact retroactivity and enforcement rules with a Michigan lawyer.
- 2 official pages 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 Michigan. Every figure is quoted from Michigan’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.