Courts award alimony when there is a huge income disparity between divorced spouses and or a huge difference in wealth. A married couple typically as part of the marriage make decisions which spouse would live at home and care for the children – and as a result, the spouse doing the child care would have their career and earning capacity negatively affected by this mutually made decision. Courts try their best to take these marital decisions into account when dividing marital property and determining the need to pay alimony as part of the monetary equities of a divorce. Notably alimony is not supposed to be based upon gender it is based only on economic factors. Regarding a Court’s award of alimony, we note the following:
The purpose of an award of alimony is not to reward or punish a party. However, it is sound social policy to recognize and recompense an individual who has been part of a marital agreement which results in the individual’s inability to adequately support him or herself. In other words, often, an individual with an advanced degree does not work in their field because they have spent many years performing the important duties of child rearing. They should not be punished for this decision. Alimony is based upon reasonable needs in accordance with the typical lifestyle and standard of living established by the parties during the marriage, as well as the payor’s ability to pay. Alimony is available only where economic justice and the reasonable needs of the parties cannot be achieved by way of an equitable distribution award and reasonably celeritous development of an appropriate employable skill. When a Court makes the determination as to whether alimony is necessary, the Court must consider numerous factors including the parties’ earnings and earning capacities, income sources, mental and physical conditions, contributions to the earning power of the other, educations, standard of living during the marriage, the contribution of a spouse as homemaker and the duration of the marriage. The Alimony factors that are considered are as follows:
•The relative earnings of both spouses.
•The duration of the marriage.
•The ages and physical, mental and emotional states of the two spouses.
•The sources of income of both spouses. This includes medical, retirement, insurance or other benefits.
•The expected future earnings and inheritances of the two spouses.
•The degree to which one spouse has contributed to the other spouse’s education, training or increased earning potential.
•The degree to which a spouse will be financially affected by their position as the custodian of a minor child.
•The standard of living of the spouses established during the marriage.
•The relative education of the parties. This also considers the amount of time it would take for the spouse seeking alimony to acquire the education or training necessary to find employment.
•The relative assets and liabilities of the two spouses.
•The property each spouse brought to the marriage.
•The degree a spouse contributed as a homemaker.
•The relative needs of the two spouses.
•The marital misconduct of either of the spouses during the marriage. “Abuse” is in this context shall have the meaning given to it under Section 6102.
•The federal, state and local tax consequences of the alimony.
•Whether the spouse seeking alimony lacks sufficient property, including items in Chapter 35 relating to property rights, to provide for their reasonable needs.
•Whether the spouse seeking alimony is incapable of supporting themselves through appropriate employment.
Leicht v. Leicht, 2017 PA Super 165, 164 A.3d 1246, 1248 (Pa. Super. 2017) (quoting Teodorski v. Teodorski, 2004 PA Super 313, 857 A.2d 194, 200 (Pa. Super. 2004) (please note large portions of the above paragraph are quotations or paraphrase from the above cases and/ or statutes)
As the Domestic Relations statute and the case law make clear, alimony is not guaranteed. A Court typically considers the length of the marriage, the number of years of spousal support paid.
The bottom line here is that all the above factors are reviewed by a Court with an eye towards fashioning a ruling that results in economic justice. It was the case for many years that a certain amount of alimony or spousal support was given based upon the number of years a spouse did not work and performed household tasks. However, the more recent tendency is to view the capacity for self-support holistically and to create a ruling that provides time for a springboard to self-sufficiency.