My oldest child just recently turned 16 years old. I've paid child support from the time that she was born. During the last 16 years I've had several different jobs that range pretty wide in pay.
In 2004 I was only making $6.50/hr and was ordered to pay $40/week.
In 2009 I had my first really good paying job. I only made $11/hr but I received bonuses based on performance. At this point I was paying $120/wk in child support.
In 2010 they throttled our bonus structure for the first part of the year. In June/July 2010 I had my best months ever and netted approx $18,000 in bonuses over those 2 months. In August they set our bonuses back, and I had the same results in August/September, however my bonuses were only about $2,000/month. When my daughter's mom took me to court, the courts stated..."Well according to your paystubs, you're CAPABLE of making $XX amount, so we are basing your child support off that. I was bumped all the way up to $275/wk in child support.
I ended up losing this job in late 2011. I couldn't afford the $275/wk and went to court to have it reduced. After that job I was making a flat $12/hr - no bonuses. When I went to have my child support lowered, the courts didn't like that I went from making $70k+ a year to only making $25k/year. So they told me I needed to look for a higher paying job and only lowered my child support to $180/wk
Sometime in 2014 I was able to get it lowered to $140/wk and that held from 2014 - 2019.
Recently I've started a new job here in Vegas that pays pretty well. We are in the middle of our busy season so I'm working between 60-70 hours a week....anything over 40 hours is 1.5x my regular pay. Our busy season only lasts for about 3 months out of the year and after that...overtime is normally capped at 5 hours/week.
I spoke w/ the judge recently and had to forward over my last 3 paystubs. I explained the overtime thing to him but he didn't believe me. I even offered to have them contact my employer, but they were not interested. They based my child support on me working 52 hours/wk....I'm back to paying $240/wk in child support.
MEANWHILE. My daughters mom has not had a job in the past 17 years. She's lived off my child support and government assistance. She's had 2 drug dealer boyfriends in the past that were both arrested at her house, but the courts refuse to give me even joint custody...even when I lived only 10 minutes from her (She lives in Indiana)....
The system fucks over guys big time.
Luckily I only have a few more years of this shit.
***Note: I have 0 issues with providing for my child even when they don't live with me. However I hate that I'm the only one that is basically forced to be financially responsible for her. In 2004 I actually had to spend 30 days in county jail because I got $300 behind in child support.
