Federal Child Support Tables explained

The Federal Child Support Tables tell you the base monthly child support amount from just two numbers: the payor's gross annual income and the number of children. Ontario uses the Ontario table under the Federal Child Support Guidelines. Find your income row, read across to the column for your number of children, and that monthly figure is the table amount you start from.

Child support in Ontario is formula-driven, not negotiated from scratch. The federal Department of Justice publishes a separate table for each province, set to the cost of raising children there. The amount rises with income and with each additional child, and it is the starting point a court expects unless a specific rule changes it. For the full picture of how the table fits everything else, see how child support is calculated in Ontario.

When the table amount applies

The table amount is the standard answer when one parent has the children most of the time and the payor earns under $150,000. A few rounded Ontario examples, before any add-ons:

• $60,000 income — roughly $548/month for one child, roughly $892 for two
• $100,000 income — roughly $886/month for one child, roughly $1,416 for two
• $150,000 income — roughly $1,316/month for one child, roughly $2,065 for two

Treat these as illustrative. The exact figure comes from the Department of Justice child support table look-up, which reads the official Ontario table to the dollar. The same logic runs in the Cairn calculator, so you see the number against your own pay rather than a generic chart.

When the table amount does not apply

The table is the floor, not the whole story. Three situations move it. Income over $150,000 — under section 4 of the Federal Child Support Guidelines, the table applies to the first $150,000 and the amount on the excess is discretionary. Shared parenting — if each parent has the children at least 40% of the time, section 9 of the Guidelines changes the math (see how shared parenting changes child support). And section 7 special expenses — childcare, orthodontics, and similar costs get added on top in proportion to each parent's income (see section 7 special expenses).

What to do

Pull your total income from line 15000 of last year's notice of assessment, then read the Ontario table at that income for your number of children. That single figure is the anchor every other adjustment moves up or down from. Then run it through the calculator to see what the amount does to your take-home pay every two weeks — that is the number that actually matters when you are planning rent and groceries. Cairn is built only for Ontario family law, not a national tool retrofitted; see what we do.

Run the free calculator at cairnguide.ca/calculator.