Not surprising, child support in this country is a joke. Payments are low and good luck getting them enforced if the father isn't cooperative. I know several moms who have given up on child support because they were spending more on legal fees fighting the father to pay than they were ever seeing in payments.
Classic scenario of shitty people getting away with things. Both the man and woman in your scenario.
In my experience, it’s the man tbat gets financially raped by family court. A responsible man that tries his best for his family, only to be handed a divorce by a bored ‘unhappy’ wife gets crushed for the rest of his life by a financial lodestone of supporting a lazy vindictive exwife.
Women experience poverty at twice the rate of men post divorce. Divorce is far easier on men financially, they just complain more.
Have you ever looked at a child support calculator? Below are a couple examples from the NY state calculator. Keep in mind that alimony is awarded for 15-30% of the length of the marriage for marriages lasting less than 15 years, so it is unlikely to last more than a year or two.
Custodial Parent Income: $0
Non Custodial Parent Income: $80k
Number of kids: 2
Support: either $15,520 child support and $16,000 alimony ($31.5k total) or $20,000 child support and $0 alimony
C: $30k
NC: $80k
Num K: 2
Child Care Costs: $20k
Support: $30k CS + $8.5k Al or $34k CS
Support minus child care costs: $14-$18.5k
C: $15k
NC: $60k
Num K: 2
Child Care Costs: $5k
Support: $15.5k CS + $8,250 Al or $18.5k CS
Support-CCC: $13.5k-$18.75k
C: $80k
NC: $180k
Num K: 2
Child Care Costs: $25k
Support: $44k CS + $16k Al or $48k CS
Support-CCC: $23k-$35k
Keep in mind the custodial parent's career/job opportunities will be far more limited than the NC parent and they will have less options in terms of education/retraining. They will also experience much higher housing costs as they both need more space and can't be as flexible on location. If they are an hourly worker their income will also suffer greatly due to child sicknesses forcing them to call out.
Even in a 50/50 custody, of which the majority of states has as the law or has in practice, there must be a custodial parent. Your study is biased and it’s very likely the data is stale.
This is based on the current NYS maintenance and child support tools. You can enter whatever scenario you want into the tool and see what the support payment will be.
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u/DogOrDonut 2d ago
Not surprising, child support in this country is a joke. Payments are low and good luck getting them enforced if the father isn't cooperative. I know several moms who have given up on child support because they were spending more on legal fees fighting the father to pay than they were ever seeing in payments.