Understanding Alimony

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Understanding Alimony

Traditionally, alimony (or spousal support or maintenance) was intended to protect divorced women who did not work and were less educated from falling into poverty. According to this view, the woman’s job was to raise children and run the household. Today, both spouses often work, women are much more likely to be educated and have employment potential, and it is not at all uncommon for the wife to earn more than her husband. Therefore, the question has turned to, what is fair in the 21st century?

The underlying principle of alimony is to minimize any unfair economic consequences of a divorce. Unfortunately, the standard of living of each spouse very often must drop after a divorce, since it costs more to maintain two households. The modern view is that the financial burden should be equally shared and should not discourage the less well-off spouse from working or acquiring marketable skills to enter the job market.

The law varies greatly from state to state and judges have so much individual discretion in determining the amount and duration of alimony payments that generalizations are difficult. But the trend in alimony law is to allow those paying alimony to modify the terms later if either spouse’s circumstances change, especially if the recipient acquires a live-in partner.

What factors are taken into account?

In most states, the approach is that the court should exercise its discretion in common-sense fashion and take into account a variety of factors, which many states provide by law. These factors typically include:

• The length of the marriage
• The age of the spouses
• The income and earning ability of both spouses and each spouse’s ability to meet his or her needs independently
• The time necessary to acquire sufficient education and training to enable the recipient-spouse to find appropriate employment, and that spouse’s future earning capacity
• The amount of marital property that was apportioned to each spouse by the divorce court
• The contribution of each spouse to the education, earning ability, and career building of the other spouse, including the spouse’s contribution to the earning of a professional degree by the other spouse
• Whether the spouse seeking support is the custodian of a child whose age or circumstances make it inappropriate for that spouse to seek employment
• The needs and obligations of each spouse
• The standard of living during the marriage
• Any pension or retirement benefits of either spouse
• The time and expense necessary for the spouse seeking support to acquire education, training, or job experience to obtain appropriate employment
• The lost income-producing capacity of either spouse resulting from marital responsibilities
• The ability of the paying spouse to meet his or her own needs while meeting those of the spouse seeking support