Opinion ID: 1751299
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Support Amount.

Text: The State complains that the court erred in determining the amount of support by miscalculating Burge's income. The evidence showed that Burge's base pay was $9.33 per hour, or a gross of $1616 per month. However, when his incentive pay was added, his earnings were approximately $11.96 per hour. The trial court concluded that the child support payments should be set without regard to the incentive pay. Burge consistently earned incentive pay. The average of four pay stubs placed in evidence was $11.89 per hour, or approximately $2060 per month. In fact, Burge's reported gross earnings of approximately $23,000 on his 1991 income tax return approximates the $2060 per month figure. In In re Marriage of Brown, 487 N.W.2d 331 (Iowa 1992), the issue was whether overtime pay should be considered in calculating monthly income. We noted that overtime pay is ordinarily included in our guidelines as monthly income, and nothing in the rules suggests that it should automatically be excluded. Unless it would result in injustice or would require the payor to work overtime in order to pay support, overtime pay would be included in calculating income. Id. at 333. Here, there is no problem with burdening Burge by requiring him to work additional hours; his incentive pay was based solely on increased productivity, not overtime. It is not unjust to include Burge's incentive pay under these circumstances. Burge speculates that his earnings might be reduced in the future because of uncertainty in his employer's future plans. However, this is true in the case of most wage earners; future income is almost always speculative to some extent. In this case, Burge's substantial history of wages, which included incentive pay, provides a sufficient basis for computing his support payments by considering his total income. The court erred in reducing his income to exclude incentive pay. We reverse and remand for computation of Burge's support based on his total income, including incentive pay.