6.5.3 Calculating Income

In determining gross income for calculating support, one may look at a party’s actual gross income if the party is employed to full capacity or may look to potential income if the party is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed.1

If a party is voluntarily underemployed or unemployed, child support is calculated based on the party’s income earning potential, i.e., the amount of income a person is capable of earning based on career choice, education, and skill level.2  In voluntary unemployment or underemployment cases, our courts will usually use the wage earned by the party prior to voluntary underemployment or unemployment as the best estimate of the obligated party’s potential income. If that is not feasible, a court may also use the most recently published Louisiana Occupational Employment Wage Survey.3

The amount of the basic child support obligation obtained by use of the provisions for voluntary unemployment or underemployment cannot exceed that amount that the party paying child support would have owed had no determination of the payee’s income potential been made.4

In the absence of evidence of income earning potential, there is a rebuttable presumption that a party could earn income equal to the amount that could be earned for 32 hours per week of work at the prevailing minimum wage.5  It may seem frustrating to litigate a case for a minimum amount of income; however, small amounts may be essential to low-income clients.

These types of cases present themselves often. Remember that your standard of appeal is manifest error.6  Appellate courts do not want to get into the weeds of calculating income unless they must. Therefore, the more information you can get into the court record to prove your argument, the better.

• 1La. R.S. 9:315(C)(5)(a)–(b).
• 2La. R.S. 9:315.11(A)(1).
• 3See La. R.S. 9:315.1.1(B); see also La. R.S. 13:3712.1 (requiring a court to accept a copy of a self-authenticating report from the Department of Labor, or from any state or reporting agency, as prima facie proof of its contents).
• 4See La. R.S. 9:315.11(B).
• 5La. R.S. 9:315.11(A)(2).
• 6La. R.S. 9:315.17.