How Is the Amount of Spousal Support Determined?

Spousal support is not ordered in every case. Instead, one party must request it or the parties must agree to it. After determining that spousal support should be awarded, courts may be tasked with the difficulty of determining how much support to award.

Purpose of Spousal Support

Spousal support seeks to provide continuing income to a lower-earning or unemployed spouse by the higher-earning spouse. Spousal support recognizes the injustice in parties enjoying a certain standard of living during their marriage and then having one spouse enjoy a much better standard of living after the divorce than the other party. Spousal support may be used to avoid a spouse becoming financially destitute and having to depend on public assistance. Additionally, it can help avoid unfair economic effects. Spousal support can also provide recognition that many contributions that a partner can make during a marriage are not financial in nature. For example, a spouse may have left college in order to support the career ambitions of the other spouse. He or she may have provided domestic duties or helped raise children rather than working outside the home. Spousal support can help equalize the situation so that the lower-earning spouse’s contributions are recognized. 

Factors that Affect Spousal Support Amounts

Courts may consider a number of different factors when determining whether to award spousal support and in what amounts. Child support may be ordered using established guidelines, but spousal support determinations are much different. Many states use the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act as a basis in determining spousal support matters. This Act suggests that courts consider such factors as the spouses’ age, physical health, emotional wellbeing and financial condition. The length of the marriage is typically considered with this Act and state laws. Additionally, the court may consider the standard of living the couple enjoyed during the marriage, the separate property interests of each spouse, whether child support is awarded, the ability of the higher-earning spouse to provide support as well as provide self-support and the amount of time it would take the recipient spouse to receive education or training to increase his or her skills and ability to become self-sufficient. 

Earning Capacity

One of the important factors that courts may consider is the earning capacity of the recipient spouse. A person’s earning capacity is measured by assessing a number of factors, including his or her education, work history, job skills, age and health. Sometimes the court may determine a spouse’s earning capacity if he or she is unemployed to determine what the spouse’s income should be and may then impute this level of income to him or her. 

Estimating Need

The court can consider how much money each spouse can likely earn in a given month and compare this amount to the reasonable expenses for the month. The court can assess whether a spousal support award would enable the other spouse to maintain a similar lifestyle enjoyed during the marriage. The court calculates monetarily the amount of funds needed to achieve this goal. For example, if a couple’s income consists of $5,000 of one spouse’s income that would cause $1,650 to be due in child support each month based on the state’s child support formula but the reasonable expenses are $2,500 a month, the court may order the sole earner to pay spousal support in the amount of $850 so that the spouse’s needs are met so long as the judge determines that the paying spouse can afford to do so. 

Savings and Other Property

The court may consider other sources of funds, such as savings accounts. The court is typically considering how much support is required for each party to maintain the standard of living that was enjoyed during the marriage. Some state courts have found that if a couple is accustomed to socking away a substantial amount of savings each month that this trend should continue during the divorce. Other states have made rulings opposite to this principle. Some courts may try to avoid the question of spousal support altogether by providing the lower-earning spouse to have a greater stake of the marital estate such as giving this spouse the family home.

Rough Estimates

Some judges may use an unspoken rule regarding a particular percentage when making spousal support awards. For example, a judge may decide that all support payments should not exceed 30 or 40 percent of the higher-earning spouse’s gross income. The combined support payments of alimony and child support may be factored into this equation.