Child support and the gender of the custodial parent

According to information released by the Census Bureau for 2011, mothers in Wisconsin and across the nation are statistically more likely to fail to pay court-ordered child support than fathers are. The data suggests that 25.1 percent of custodial mothers with child support agreements did not receive any of the child support to which they were entitled, as opposed to 32 percent of custodial fathers.

Nationally, $14.3 billion went unpaid in child support in 2011. Researchers have posited a hypothesis that because the average income of a woman-run household is about half that of a man’s, women who are struggling to maintain a base standard of living may be less likely to be able to make child support payments.

An additional factor is that many custodial fathers reject child support provisions in the divorce decree for a number of reasons. While a court generally orders the non-custodial parent to pay child support, it is believed that custodial fathers are not as likely to utilize government resources to help collect past due obligations as custodial mothers are. On average, when the father does not collect child support, the household income is over $9,000 higher annually, while custodial mothers’ household income drops by almost $4,200 per year.

When representing a parent who is going through a divorce, an attorney might examine the financial status of both spouses to help determine how likely the client is to receive all or part of the child support ordered by the court. The attorney can assist in incorporating a provision regarding this matter into a comprehensive settlement agreement to submit to the court for its approval.

Source: fivethirtyeight.com, “Are Moms Less Likely Than Dads To Pay Child Support?”, Mona Chalabi, Feb. 26, 2015