Written by NotALawyer Legal AI · Reviewed by External Legal AI · Published April 7, 2026 · Last reviewed June 26, 2026
Alimony — also called spousal support or maintenance — is money one spouse pays the other after a separation or divorce. The point is to help the lower-earning spouse keep a reasonable standard of living while they move toward supporting themselves. Many divorces involve no alimony at all, and the rules vary a lot from state to state.
A court looks at how long the marriage lasted, each spouse's income and earning power, age, health, contributions to the marriage (including raising kids and running the home), and the standard of living you both built. No single factor decides it.
Temporary alimony covers the divorce process itself. Rehabilitative alimony funds education or training so a spouse can become self-supporting. Permanent alimony (now rare) continues indefinitely, usually after long marriages where one spouse can't realistically earn enough.
A common rule of thumb is alimony for about half the length of a marriage under 20 years. For marriages of 20+ years, support can run indefinitely — especially when the receiving spouse is older or in poor health.
A big change in circumstances — job loss, retirement, the recipient remarrying, or moving in with a new partner — can be grounds to modify or stop alimony. To make that happen, file a petition with the court that issued the order.
For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, alimony is no longer tax-deductible for the payer and no longer counts as taxable income for the recipient. That shift changes the real cost of payments and how the amount gets negotiated.
More on this topic: the Family hub
This shows whether your state sets spousal support (alimony) using a statutory formula or a duration limit tied to how long you were married, or leaves the amount and length mostly to a judge's discretion. Each value is cited to the state statute or agency; a state with no sourced figure shows "Not yet sourced."
| State | Alimony rule type | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Duration cap | Ala. Code § 30-2-57 |
| Alaska | Judicial discretion | Alaska Stat. § 25.24.160 |
| Arizona | Advisory guideline | Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 25-319 |
| Arkansas | Judicial discretion | Ark. Code § 9-12-312 |
| California | Judicial discretion | Cal. Fam. Code § 4320 |
| Colorado | Advisory guideline | Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-114 |
| Connecticut | Judicial discretion | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 46b-82 |
| Delaware | Duration cap | 13 Del. C. § 1512 |
| District of Columbia | Judicial discretion | D.C. Code § 16-913 |
| Florida | Durational caps | Fla. Stat. § 61.08 |
| Georgia | Judicial discretion | Ga. Code § 19-6-1 |
| Hawaii | Judicial discretion | Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-47 |
| Idaho | Judicial discretion | Idaho Code § 32-705 |
| Illinois | Statutory formula | 750 ILCS 5/504 |
| Indiana | Limited; 3-yr cap | Ind. Code § 31-15-7-2 |
| Iowa | Judicial discretion | Iowa Code § 598.21A |
| Kansas | 121-month cap | Kan. Stat. Ann. § 23-2904 |
| Kentucky | Judicial discretion | Ky. Rev. Stat. § 403.200 |
| Louisiana | 1/3-income cap | La. Civ. Code art. 112 |
| Maine | Duration guideline | 19-A M.R.S. § 951-A |
| Maryland | Judicial discretion | Md. Code, Fam. Law § 11-106 |
| Massachusetts | Durational limits | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 208 § 49 |
| Michigan | Judicial discretion | Mich. Comp. Laws § 552.23 |
| Minnesota | Discretion + presumptions | Minn. Stat. § 518.552 |
| Mississippi | Judicial discretion | Armstrong v. Armstrong (Miss. 1993) |
| Missouri | Judicial discretion | Mo. Rev. Stat. § 452.335 |
| Montana | Judicial discretion | Mont. Code Ann. § 40-4-203 |
| Nebraska | Judicial discretion | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 42-365 |
| Nevada | Judicial discretion | Nev. Rev. Stat. § 125.150 |
| New Hampshire | Statutory formula | N.H. Rev. Stat. § 458:19-a |
| New Jersey | Duration cap | N.J. Stat. § 2A:34-23 |
| New Mexico | Judicial discretion | N.M. Stat. § 40-4-7 |
| New York | Statutory formula | N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236-B |
| North Carolina | Judicial discretion | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 50-16.3A |
| North Dakota | Judicial discretion | N.D. Cent. Code § 14-05-24.1 |
| Ohio | Judicial discretion | Ohio Rev. Code § 3105.18 |
| Oklahoma | Judicial discretion | Okla. Stat. tit. 43 § 134 |
| Oregon | Judicial discretion | Or. Rev. Stat. § 107.105 |
| Pennsylvania | Judicial discretion | 23 Pa.C.S. § 3701 |
| Rhode Island | Judicial discretion | R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-16 |
| South Carolina | Judicial discretion | S.C. Code § 20-3-130 |
| South Dakota | Judicial discretion | S.D. Codified Laws § 25-4-41 |
| Tennessee | Judicial discretion | Tenn. Code § 36-5-121 |
| Texas | Statutory caps | Tex. Fam. Code §§ 8.054-8.055 |
| Utah | Duration cap | Utah Code § 30-3-5 |
| Vermont | Judicial discretion | 15 V.S.A. § 752 |
| Virginia | Judicial discretion | Va. Code § 20-107.1 |
| Washington | Judicial discretion | Wash. Rev. Code § 26.09.090 |
| West Virginia | Judicial discretion | W. Va. Code § 48-6-301 |
| Wisconsin | Judicial discretion | Wis. Stat. § 767.56 |
| Wyoming | Judicial discretion | Wyo. Stat. § 20-2-114 |
General information, not legal advice. Rules change and exceptions apply — confirm the current rule with the cited source for your state.
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