How Spousal Maintenance Is Actually Calculated in New York

Most people in a New York divorce meet the maintenance number the same way: a lawyer runs it, says a figure, and it arrives with no explanation attached. That figure is not guesswork. Since 2015 New York has had a statutory formula for spousal maintenance — the payments one spouse makes to the other after a divorce — and you can run it yourself in about ten minutes.

What the formula actually is

Post-divorce maintenance is governed by Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(6). The statute gives two formulas, and which one applies depends on a single question: is the spouse paying maintenance also paying child support?

If the maintenance payor is also the non-custodial parent paying child support, the court runs both of these and takes whichever produces the lower number:

• 20% of the payor’s income, minus 25% of the payee’s income
• 40% of the parties’ combined income, minus the payee’s income

If the payor is not paying child support, the percentages change:

• 30% of the payor’s income, minus 20% of the payee’s income
• 40% of the parties’ combined income, minus the payee’s income

In both cases the lower of the two results is the guideline amount. If the calculation produces zero or a negative number, the guideline amount is zero.

The income cap, and what happens above it

The formula does not run on the payor’s entire income. It runs on income up to a statutory cap, which the legislature ties to the Consumer Price Index and adjusts on a fixed schedule. As of March 1, 2026 the maintenance income cap is $241,000.

Income above the cap is not ignored, but it is not run through the formula either. The court has discretion over that portion, and decides it by weighing the statutory factors — the length of the marriage, the age and health of both spouses, earning capacity, the standard of living established during the marriage, whether one spouse gave up a career, wasteful dissipation of assets, and a catch-all for anything else the court finds just and proper.

This is the single most misunderstood part of the statute, and it cuts both ways. A high earner does not escape a larger award simply because the formula stops at $241,000. A lower-earning spouse does not automatically receive more than the capped figure either. Above the cap, somebody has to make an argument.

A worked example

Take a couple where the higher earner makes $200,000 a year and the lower earner makes $60,000. There are no children, so no child support is being paid, which means the second set of percentages applies.

First calculation: 30% of $200,000 is $60,000. 20% of $60,000 is $12,000. Subtract, and the result is $48,000 per year.

Second calculation: combined income is $260,000. 40% of that is $104,000. Subtract the payee’s $60,000, and the result is $44,000 per year.

The lower of the two governs, so the guideline amount is $44,000 a year — about $3,667 a month. Note that the second formula controlled, which is common when the income gap is moderate.

Now run the same marriage with a payor earning $400,000. Only $241,000 of that income enters the formula. First calculation: 30% of $241,000 is $72,300, minus 20% of $60,000, which is $12,000, leaving $60,300. Second calculation: capped combined income is $301,000, 40% of which is $120,400, minus the payee’s $60,000, leaving $60,400. The lower figure governs again, so the guideline amount is $60,300 a year.

The payor in the second example earns double what the first one earned, but the guideline amount rose by only about 37%. The $159,000 of income sitting above the cap produced nothing automatically. Whether any of it reaches the award depends entirely on whether somebody argues the statutory factors, and how the court weighs them.

How long it lasts

Duration is handled separately from amount, and the statute supplies an advisory schedule keyed to the length of the marriage:

• Marriages of 0 to 15 years: 15% to 30% of the length of the marriage
• Marriages of more than 15 and up to 20 years: 30% to 40% of the length of the marriage
• Marriages of more than 20 years: 35% to 50% of the length of the marriage

A sixteen-year marriage therefore points toward roughly five to six and a half years of maintenance. The word doing the work in that sentence is advisory. The schedule is a starting point the court may depart from, and the length of the marriage is measured to the date the action was commenced, not the date the couple separated — which in a long-running case can be a meaningful difference.

Two further points on duration are easy to miss. In very long marriages a court may award maintenance without a fixed end date, particularly where the payee’s age or health makes a return to the workforce unrealistic. And the statute directs the court to consider the payee’s anticipated retirement assets and eligibility for benefits when setting duration, so an award that ends around the time a payee reaches full retirement age is a common shape rather than a coincidence.

What counts as income

The formula is only as good as the two income figures entering it, and the statute does not let a party define those figures for themselves. Maintenance income is defined by reference to the child support standards, which reach considerably further than a salary does.

That definition takes in gross income as reported on the most recent federal tax return, investment income, and income from self-employment after allowable business deductions — though not every deduction the tax code permits is allowed here, which is where closely held businesses generate the most argument. It also reaches certain payments received in place of wages: workers’ compensation, disability benefits, unemployment, and pension or retirement income.

Courts may also impute income — treat a spouse as earning more than they actually do — where someone has reduced their earnings without good reason, is paid partly off the books, or has resources available that a tax return does not reveal. Imputation is a factual finding supported by evidence, not a penalty, and the party asking for it has to build the record.

Where this goes wrong

The cap gets treated as a ceiling

People read $241,000 and conclude that is the most income maintenance can ever touch. It is not a ceiling on the award; it is the ceiling on the automatic part of the award. Above it the court can and regularly does add more, but only if a party asks and supports the request with the statutory factors. Payees who assume the cap is the end of the analysis leave money unclaimed. Payors who assume the same are unprepared when the other side argues past it.

Temporary maintenance is confused with post-divorce maintenance

Two different provisions are in play. Temporary maintenance, under DRL § 236(B)(5-a), covers the period while the case is pending. Post-divorce maintenance, under § 236(B)(6), covers the period after judgment. They are calculated separately and a temporary award is not a preview of the final one. Treating an early interim support order as a settled outcome is one of the most common misreadings in a contested case.

Income is taken from the tax return and nothing else

A spouse who stopped working the year the case was filed does not thereby have an income of zero, and a business owner’s taxable income is frequently not the figure the statute asks for. Running the formula on line 1 of a tax return produces a number that will not survive scrutiny, and it is usually the side that did the sloppier work that is caught out by it.

The order of operations gets reversed

Maintenance is calculated first, and the amount is then deducted from the payor’s income and added to the payee’s before child support is run. Doing it the other way round inflates the child support figure and understates maintenance. When two sets of numbers do not reconcile between sides, the sequence is usually where the discrepancy started.

Nobody asks the court to deviate

The guideline amount is a default, not a verdict. The court may adjust it if it finds the guideline obligation unjust or inappropriate, and when it does, it must state on the record or in a written decision what the unadjusted figure was, which factors it considered, and why it departed. That is a route that exists in the statute and goes unused in cases where the formula plainly produces the wrong result — a spouse with serious health costs, a short marriage where one party supported the other through professional training, a payor whose income is about to fall off a cliff.

What to do with the number

Run the formula before the first settlement conversation, not after. Knowing the guideline figure converts a negotiation about feelings into a negotiation about a number and the reasons to move off it. Bring the raw inputs — the last three years of tax returns, recent pay stubs, documentation of any non-salary income — because the formula is only as reliable as the income figures going into it.

If the income picture is complicated, or either spouse earns above the cap, the calculation stops being arithmetic and becomes advocacy. That is the point at which it is worth sitting down with a maintenance attorney who can tell you which of the statutory factors your case actually turns on.

Frequently asked questions

Is maintenance the same thing as alimony?

Yes. New York statutes use the word maintenance; alimony is the older and more common term for the same thing. Nothing turns on which word you use.

Do I still get maintenance if I work?

Possibly. The formula takes both incomes as inputs and produces an award whenever the gap between them is wide enough. Earning a salary reduces the calculated figure but does not disqualify you.

Does maintenance stop if I remarry?

Post-divorce maintenance terminates on the death of either party or on the payee’s remarriage. It may also be modified or terminated earlier on a showing of a substantial change in circumstances, and a judgment can specify additional terminating events.

Is maintenance taxable?

For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, maintenance is not deductible by the payor and not taxable income to the payee under federal law. Older orders may still follow the previous treatment, which is why the date of the original judgment matters when reviewing an existing obligation.

Can a maintenance award be changed later?

Yes, on a showing of a substantial change in circumstances, or on the other grounds set out in the statute. A change has to be real and continuing — a temporary dip in income is generally not enough.

A note on this article

This article describes New York law in general terms and is not legal advice. Maintenance outcomes turn on facts specific to each marriage, and the statutory income caps adjust periodically. If you are facing a divorce in Queens or anywhere in New York City, the divorce team at Aronov Law NY can review your numbers against the current guidelines.