Wisconsin Low Income Child Support Calculator

When a paying parent's income falls within Wisconsin's low income schedule, courts can set support from a state table instead of the flat percentages.^[1] The schedule covers income between 75 and 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, and the amounts step up gradually as income rises. Enter monthly income and number of children below, and the calculator reads the current table and shows your bracket.

Two things make this schedule different from everything else on these pages. It changes every March when the federal poverty guidelines update, and using it is never automatic, because the court must find that the payer's total economic circumstances limit what they can pay at the standard rate. A number from an outdated table is worse than no number, and most tables published online are outdated.

Please read before you start. This is an estimate, not a court order. It reads the figures you enter against the low-income schedule in Wis. Admin. Code § DCF 150.04(5) and Appendix C. The state revises that schedule each year effective March 1, so confirm you are looking at the current version. A court can also impute income based on earning capacity rather than use what you actually earn. Under Wis. Stat. § 767.511(1m) a court can order a different amount. Using this tool does not create an attorney-client relationship with Sterling Lawyers and nothing here is legal advice.

Built on the low income payer provisions in Wis. Admin. Code DCF 150.04(4) and the Appendix C schedule effective March 1, 2026, revised annually against the federal poverty guidelines.^[2]

Is this the right calculator for you?

Use it when the paying parent's monthly income available for support sits inside the current schedule's range and low income treatment is realistically on the table. Different facts point elsewhere.

• Income at or above 150 percent of the poverty guidelines. The standard percentages take over at that line, through the main Wisconsin child support calculator.
• Earlier support orders pushed income down. Wisconsin expressly lets courts combine the two provisions when prior obligations drop a payer into this schedule, so run the serial family child support calculator first and bring the adjusted income here.
• Both parents have at least 92 overnights. Courts can blend this schedule with the shared placement child support calculator formula, and blended cases belong with an attorney.
• Income below the schedule's lowest bracket. The table has no amount there. Courts set support on the payer's total economic circumstances, and the calculator returns an explanation instead of a number.

How the low income schedule works

The schedule is a lookup table, not a formula. Find the bracket your monthly income fits, read across to your number of children, and the table gives both a percentage and a dollar amount for that bracket.^[3]

The design phases you toward the standard rates. Percentages sit well below the standard at the bottom of the schedule, climb gradually with each bracket, and at 150 percent of the poverty guidelines the standard percentages take over completely. Wisconsin built it so support scales with the ability to pay instead of jumping at a cliff.

Why we don't print the table here

Most pages that publish Wisconsin's low income table are showing you an old one. The schedule revises every March 1 against the new federal poverty guidelines, and even official summary pages can lag the current version. The calculator above reads the schedule effective March 1, 2026, shows your matched bracket, and links the official source, which beats a screenshot that quietly expired a year ago.

Using the schedule is the court's call, not automatic

The definition has two parts. The payer's income must sit at a level in the schedule, and the court must determine that the payer's total economic circumstances limit the ability to pay support at the standard level.^[4] Income alone gets you to the table's doorstep; the finding gets you through it.

That means two payers with identical incomes can land differently, based on assets, expenses, household realities, and the record each one presents. Preparation matters at the bottom of the income scale just as much as it does at the top.

What if the payer is unemployed or income is unknown?

Zero income does not automatically mean zero support. Courts can impute income based on earning capacity when a parent is unemployed or working below capacity, and when income is simply unknown despite real effort to find it, courts can impute pay for 10 to 35 hours a week at minimum wage.^[5]

Below the schedule's lowest bracket, the rule is more forgiving than most people expect. The court sets an amount appropriate for the payer's total economic circumstances, and that amount can sit below the lowest figure in the table itself. The table's floor is not the law's floor.

What this estimate leaves out

Your result is a bracket read from the current schedule, and everything around it belongs to the court.

• The court's finding. The schedule applies only when the court determines that total economic circumstances limit the ability to pay at the standard level.
• Combinations. Serial adjustments can pull a payer into this schedule, and shared or split structures can blend with it. Blended numbers need attorney eyes before anyone relies on them.
• Medical support and cost decisions. Courts assign health insurance responsibility and related costs separately from this number.
• The order itself. Deviations run in either direction on request with written findings, and only a court sets, approves, or changes support.

How Sterling Lawyers can help

Support cases at this income level cut close to the bone on both sides. If you are paying, the gap between the standard rate and the schedule can be the difference between making it and not. If you are receiving, an order built on understated or wrongly imputed income shortchanges your kids. Sterling Lawyers practices family law exclusively across Wisconsin, and we build the economic record either way.

If full representation is out of reach right now, our Legal Coaching tier pairs you with attorney guidance while you handle the process yourself. Nobody should walk into a support hearing guessing.

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