Mediation Conversations: Child Support and the Unemployed

As a divorce mediator in New Jersey it is my job to help couples discuss and come to agreements on the four main areas of divorce:

1. Parenting Plans
2. Equitable Distribution of Marital Assets and Liabilities
3. New Jersey Child Support
4. Spousal Support (formerly known as Alimony)

and for couples who can work reasonably well together and are in a stable financial position, the process is relatively simple and straightforward.  But what happens when you aren’t in a stable financial position like many of us today?  Perhaps one of you is in danger of losing their job or worse yet, is unemployed?  How will that affect your divorce and your use of a mediation service you ask? To answer that, we need to take a look at how certain support payments are calculated and for today’s post, specifically, child support in New Jersey.

Child support in New Jersey is a relatively complicated calculation which is much too complex to go into here in much detail however one of the main inputs used is that of each parent’s income.  But in today’s economy, it is quite reasonable that one of you may be underemployed or worse yet, unemployed and so what happens if one of you doesn’t have any income or as much as you used to?  How will child support be calculated?  If you’re using a mediator to handle your divorce, the answer can be up to you.   There are two options to consider and which one you prefer depends on what you think your job prospects are.

First we can use a technique called imputing income which allows us to come to a mutually agreed upon number that an individual would be expected to make given their experience and career choice.  We then use that number as one of the inputs into the child support calculations for whichever parent is currently under or unemployed.  When faced with a situation like this, I go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and obtain the figure and ask the parties if it seems reasonable and it usually does. We plug in the imputed salary and calculate the number.  Case closed.  But what happens if you’re in a declining field of employ or (and no one will ever admit this but let’s be realistic because we know it happens) you are discriminated against because of your age and no one wants to hire you so they offer you a laughably low salary?  What do you do then?   We work it out. Yes, there are formulas and calculations and at the end of the day no child can become an economic victim of divorce so numbers are calculated to make sure that doesn’t happen but the economic reality is that if you can’t pay, you can’t pay what is expected of you.

Call me naive but my going in supposition is that all parents want what’s best for their children and will do whatever they have to in order to support them including delivering pizzas and working at Wal-Mart, regardless of what the formula says they should pay.  So when working with a mediator, you and your spouse can come to an agreement that works for you and structure your Memorandum of Understanding to include the calculated number for child support, an interim plan for meeting the children’s financial needs and a variety of scenarios calculated at different income levels to help you understand what support will look like once you are employed and have a real salary number in your hand.  Then, as the situation changes (and the economy improves – fingers crossed) you can sit down and look at the calculated support scenarios and decide which one works best for you and your children.  No need to go back to court, file another lawsuit and go broke in the process.

I mean really, isn’t that why you came to mediation in the first place?

If you have any questions about divorce mediation or how mediation can benefit you, please feel free to contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation in one of our six central New Jersey office locations where we will take some time to get to know more about you and your situation and see if mediation is right for you.  Of if you’re simply not ready yet, feel free to visit the Equitable Mediation Services website where you’ll find lots of great information about parenting plans, equitable distribution, NJ child support and spousal support / alimony and contact us when you’re ready.  We look forward to helping you get through your divorce peacefully, efficiently and with as little stress on you and your family as possible.