questions & answers

Question: My ex-boyfriend has three different jobs. One of them is a firefighter job where he works at strait 36 hour shift so he’s free the majority of the week to work another full-time job. He also works another side job once a week. Because of him working 6, 10 hour plus shifts a week, amongst other issues with him I get little to no help with our infant daughter. This has drastically decreased the hours I can work and my income. He is telling me that legally he will only have to pay me child support from one of his jobs only and not all of them. Is this true?

Answer: The answer to your question can be found in the Arizona Child Support Guidelines.  Section 5 on page three shows that the child support calculation begins by considering the gross income of each parent.  "Gross income" is defined as follows: "Gross income includes income from any source and may include, but is not limited to, income from salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, dividends . . . . "  That means the court will look at all the income your ex earns from all of his jobs.  To get your copy of the Guidelines, go to the Court's website, look in the family law section of the self-service center.  Go to:  https://www.azcourts.gov/selfservicecenter/Family-Law-Forms.