Employers perform some of the most important work in child support:

• Acting on income-withholding orders to deduct court-ordered child support payments from the pay of part-time, full-time, and temporary employees, as well as independent contractors
• Following the specific requirements of the National Medical Support Notice (NMSN)
• Reporting newly hired employees to the state Directory of New Hires
• Verifying employment
• Providing other information requested by the program, including employee earnings, healthcare coverage details, and employee separations

Why do all this work? Because it benefits your employees and contractors, and it benefits their children too. In fact, about 72% all child support paid in the country comes from employers.

We know the income-withholding and medical support processes can be complicated. Here are a few tips to make the process smoother:

• Start the income-withholding process right away. Delays can put your employee behind on child support
• Withhold the right amount. Take the time to calculate the employee or contractor’s net disposable income and, for an income-withholding order from California, never with hold more than 50% of that amount. (Not sure what “net disposable income” means? Call us.)
• Get your payments to the State Disbursement Unit right away. The law requires payments be sent within 7 working days of when they were deducted. Holding payments longer than that or failing to send them to the State Disbursement Unit can lead to significant fines—and it hurts workers and their families
• Know your employees’ rights. Employers cannot fire, discipline, or refuse to hire someone because of income withholding
• Identify every payment, every time. Be sure to put the employee or contractor’s participant ID number and case number on every payment. Forgetting them or mixing them up can lead to missed payments

To help employers of all sizes, California offers online resources as well as customer service staff dedicated to helping employers.

Get answers to employers’ frequently asked questions directly from the state Child Support program.

For answers to questions about Income Withholding Orders, call 1-866-901-3212. Say “employer” when prompted. Or go to California’s online case management portal CustomerConnect.