Alimony changes with the times

The traditional view of alimony in Wisconsin is that of an ex-husband paying an ex-wife. However, incomes between spouses have begun to even out over the years. In many cases, women’s salaries exceed men’s, clearing the path for divorcing husbands to receive spousal support.

Alimony has never been just a one-way legal street for females, although most courts today grant more women post-marital support than men. Marriages have evolved from the days of single income households, when men were the only wage earners and women contributed to marriage by forfeiting paychecks to stay at home and raise children.

Women have moved into the workforce and increased their personal earning power. Research on gender job income among married couples in 2002 revealed that in as many as one in three marriages, wives made more money than their husbands did.

The research found that when both spouses worked, nearly one-fourth of women earned more. Another 6 percent of married women were breadwinners by default because their husbands were unemployed.

Family law judges began to notice the financial impact of married women’s incomes in the 1970s and began to take that into account during divorce settlements. Income is not the only criteria courts consider. The ages of both spouses, educational backgrounds, current occupations and health conditions factor in to a judge’s alimony decision.

Alimony is designed to help divorcing spouses continue the financial lifestyle each had during marriage. Laws pertaining to alimony have long been gender neutral and based on an income disparity between spouses. For high-income women in unhappy marriages with low-income spouses, it is more likely today than it has ever been that a husband’s request for alimony will be considered.

Source: Huffington Post, “Women Increasingly Pay Alimony,” Lili A. Vasileff, 6/9/2011