Child support often winds up being one of the most contentious issues in divorce. The sad part is that it's not necessarily because the person that is asked to pay doesn't want to help take care of their children. It's contentious because the needs and the abilities of that parent are not taken into consideration. Even the role that the parent played during the marriage is not taken into account. This causes the non-custodial parent to feel cheated out of even being a parent, but still having to pay the price for it.
Child support is based on a formula that varies only slightly from state to state. It is based on a percentage of your income, or $100 per child if you have no income. The percentage that it is based on is at least 17% of your income for one child and it goes up from there until you reach 31% for four children. If you have more than that, it goes up 2% per child. It doesn't matter if you even have the ability to make above minimum wage. It doesn't matter if you were a stay at home parent during the marriage. All of this is irrelevant to your order to pay child support. If you don't pay, you take a chance of getting sent to jail, whether you have the ability to pay or not.
Child support is not even necessary in all cases. In the case of the father getting custody of the children when the mother stayed at home with the kids, it's like he's getting a raise, because he no longer has to support the mother anyway, leaving him with more money to take care of the children. Child support should be voluntary in such cases. Even if the mother works outside the home and has enough to cover all her expenses, she should not be receiving child support unless there is a huge discrepancy between hers and her ex's income.
In order for child support to be awarded, there should have to be a proven need for it as well as a proven ability to pay. One good way to do this would be to require a yearly social security statement from each spouse upon divorce. Anyone making below poverty level wages for the past 5 years will not be required to pay child support. This would let a lot of men and women off the hook. It would cut down on deadbeats, because child support would not be assessed unless you actually have a proven ability to pay it. Most people who can pay, will pay. The person with the lower income will never have to pay child support either, but can do so voluntarily.
Child support also needs to be easier to modify should the obligor lose their job or have a drop in income. As long as they are eligible for unemployment benefits, they should not have to pay child support. Perhaps their children can receive some sort of unemployment benefit as well, so that the children aren't losing out.
By basing the child support on individual circumstances, you are eliminating many of the so called deadbeats that simply don't have the money to pay child support. The deadbeats that are left are the ones that really are deadbeats and actually deserve to go to jail.