Can I get child support if I make more money?

In some rare situations, yes. But first to clarify the question being answered, we’ll assume this is a situation where:

You are the parent with sole custody of the child you had with your ex; and
You earn more money than your ex.
The federal Child Support Guidelines, and their Ontario counterpart, do start with your respective incomes as a baseline for calculating what is known as the “Table Amount” of child support that each of you is responsible for. Conceptually this makes sense, because the legal responsibility for paying child support is tied to the existence of your child and his or her needs – the support obligation does not change merely because you are no longer living with your ex.

So when you “run the numbers” through the Guidelines formula, as the higher income-earner your Table Amount will also be higher than that of your ex. Assuming a notional “set off” between the two of you, you would not get child support.

However, your respective incomes is only one factor that determines how much each of you is responsible for. Courts are entitled to look beyond the Guidelines dollar amounts to make certain adjustments where your situation warrants.

So – while it’s not common – even as the higher-earning custodial parent, there may be narrow circumstances where you still get child support from your ex.