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Interstate Comparisons of Child Support Orders using State Guidelines
Maureen A. Pirog, Marilyn Klotz, and Katharine V. Byers

Now published in Family Relations, 1998, 47(3):   289-295.  Tables also published in the 1997 Green Book (Committee on Ways and Means, US House of Represnetatives).

This article makes interstate and intertemporal comparisons of child support orders.  The research examines changes in the size of child support awards over a ten year period.  Data were obtained from five state-level surveys conducted bi-annually beginning in 1988.  First, the study finds that states with more generous welfare payments tend to require less child support from low income obligors-a policy strategy that has serious implications for women and children on the new time-limited welfare program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.  Second, in the vast majority of states, child support orders are lower than would be expected if they adequately considered typical expenditures on children.  Finally, this study finds that interstate variation in child support orders for families in identical circumstances is substantial and cannot be explained by interstate cost-of-living differentials.   The latter finding raises serious concerns about the horizontal equity of state rather than national child support guidelines. 

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