Employment Instability

A note before you begin: This content is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice.

Your Situation

Job loss, reduced hours, or bouncing between short-term positions can throw a divorce or child support case into turmoil. Unstable employment touches almost everything the court cares about: how much child support or spousal maintenance you owe or receive, whether you can keep up with the bills, and even how the court views your availability to care for your children. If you're the one facing the instability, you may worry that the court will treat you as if you earn more than you actually do. If it's the other parent who is unemployed or underemployed, you may worry that they'll avoid paying their fair share.

This is a genuinely stressful position, and the uncertainty makes it worse. The good news is that Colorado law does not automatically punish someone for losing a job. There's a real difference between involuntary hardship and deliberately dodging an obligation — and the court is built to look at that difference. This guide will help you understand how income gets calculated when employment is shaky, what you can do to protect yourself, and where to find help getting back on your feet.

What the Law Requires

Colorado calculates child support using both parents' combined adjusted gross income, estimated as if the family were still intact, then adjusts for things like work-related childcare and medical expenses. When someone is unemployed or working part-time, the court does not simply assume a number. It first checks whether a recognized exception applies — for example, a physical or mental incapacity, being the primary caretaker of a child under a certain age, a lengthy incarceration, a temporary job meant to lead to something better, a good-faith career choice, or full-time enrollment in education or vocational training. When one of those exceptions fits, the court uses your actual income, which can be as low as zero.

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Colorado law does not let a court imagine income for you out of thin air — potential income can only be assigned after the court specifically finds that you are voluntarily unemployed or underemployed.

The law also protects you in several concrete ways while your case is pending. An employer cannot legally fire you solely because your wages are being garnished; if that happens, you have 91 days to file a lawsuit to recover lost wages and seek your job back. Similarly, an employer cannot fire, refuse to hire, or discipline you because of a health insurance withholding notice tied to a support order — doing so can expose the employer to contempt and a civil claim for reinstatement, lost wages, and fees. And if you're being harassed or interfered with at work by someone you have a protection order against, the order can specifically bar conduct that damages your employment relationships or environment; document each incident and report it to law enforcement.

What Courts Typically Do

In practice, Colorado courts treat the cause of your unemployment as one factor, not an automatic verdict. Being unemployed by itself is not evidence that income should be imputed to you. Courts apply what's often called the "shirking" test — they ask whether you are unreasonably passing up higher-paying work you could actually get in order to avoid your support duty. Voluntary acts that lead to an involuntary job loss don't automatically make you "voluntarily unemployed." Colorado appellate courts have declined to find voluntary underemployment even where a parent was fired for cause or incarcerated, treating those as single factors rather than the whole story.

When a court does decide to impute potential income, it weighs a long list of specific, known circumstances: your assets, residence, work and earnings history, job skills, education, literacy, age, health, any criminal record, employment barriers, your record of actually seeking work, the local job market, employer availability, prevailing local wages, and transportation. Best practice focuses on what you can realistically earn given your current education, training, and experience — not an aspirational or past peak salary. Courts can rely on verified statements, your work history, and reliable labor-market data to establish typical available hours and prevailing earnings in your occupation and community. If no reliable income information exists at all, the court may fall back on a baseline of a 32-hour workweek across 50 weeks per year, adjusted for your age, health, or the child's needs.

The same voluntary-unemployment framework applies to spousal maintenance: a court can calculate maintenance on potential income if it finds a spouse is voluntarily underemployed or unemployed, with limited exceptions for incapacity, caring for a young child, or lengthy incarceration.

Step by Step: What to Do

1. Document how your prior job ended. Gather anything showing the circumstances — layoff notices, termination letters, emails. This matters because the court distinguishes between losing work through no fault of your own and deliberately avoiding work.

2. Start and maintain a job-search log immediately. Keep an ongoing record of every résumé sent, every contact made, and every application completed, along with rejection letters and job offers. If imputation of income is at issue, this log is often the single most persuasive evidence that you are not shirking.

3. Gather your income documentation. Collect pay history, work history, and anything that reflects your typical hours and earnings in your field. If you're arguing an exception applies — like caring for a young child or being enrolled in training — gather proof of that too.

4. Address paperwork through the guided tool on this site. Whether you're filing for support, responding, or seeking to adjust an existing order because of your job change, the guided wizard will prepare and pre-fill the correct Colorado court forms based on your situation, so you don't have to hunt down blank forms or figure out which one applies.

5. Consider a vocational evaluation. If earning capacity is genuinely in dispute, either party can seek appointment of a vocational evaluator. If you undergo one, follow every lead the evaluator suggests and document those efforts. Any expert used should base opinions on the Colorado and local market, not the national economy.

6. Report any employment-based retaliation. If you're fired because of a garnishment or an insurance withholding notice, act quickly — the 91-day window for a garnishment-related lawsuit is firm.

7. Watch for license-suspension consequences. If support enforcement threatens your driver's or professional license and that license is necessary to keep working, raise the work impact directly with the court, since suspension can deepen the very instability at issue.

What Research Shows Can Help

The guidance here is practical rather than heavily research-based, but a few points stand out. Changes in a parent's employment are recognized as a legitimate reason parents reconsider an existing parenting-time schedule — so if a new job alters your availability, it's reasonable to revisit the arrangement rather than struggling to force an old schedule to fit. When you do, be prepared to describe your normal weekly work or school schedule and your plan for who cares for the children during those hours, because that information is used to evaluate your availability and childcare arrangements.

Colorado also offers real workforce support. The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation within the state Department of Labor and Employment provides training, resources, and connections to employers willing to train workers — especially useful if you've been out of the workforce or never worked. Workforce centers and job-placement networks are listed in Colorado family law self-help resources precisely to help parties facing job instability during a case.

What to Do Today

• Start a job-search log right now — even a simple document listing every application, contact, and response, with dates.
• Pull together the paperwork showing how your last job ended (layoff notice, termination letter, final pay stub).
• Call a workforce resource: Colorado's Department of Labor and Employment / Workforce Centers (303-620-4718) or America's Workforce Network (1-800-872-5627) can connect you to job placement and training.
• Begin the guided wizard to get the right support or modification forms started for your specific situation.
• If you have a protection order and you're being harassed at work, write down each incident with dates and report it to law enforcement.

Related Issues to Be Aware Of

• Child support: Your employment situation directly drives the support calculation, which is based on both parents' combined income. If your job changed after an order was entered, understand how the numbers would be recalculated — and remember that support can reach back to separation, filing, or service in some cases.

• Spousal maintenance: The same voluntary-unemployment analysis applies to maintenance, and the court must make specific financial findings about each party's income before deciding. Unstable income affects both whether an award is made and how much.

• How to modify a court order: A significant job change is often the reason people need to revisit an existing support order. Keep in mind that a private agreement to change support isn't effective on its own — it needs court authorization or an administrative process, though Colorado does offer a streamlined way to update support without a full hearing.

• Housing instability: Job loss and housing trouble frequently go together. Note that environmental instability by itself is not enough to justify a restriction on your parenting time, so a rough housing patch does not automatically threaten your time with your children.

• Insurance and benefits continuity: While your case is pending, neither party can cancel or let lapse health, auto, home, or life insurance without advance notice and consent. If you lose employer-provided coverage because of a job loss, pay close attention to this protection and to any order requiring medical insurance for the children.