Michigan Spousal Support Guidelines: How Do They Work?

Updated 12/01/2020

If you have relied on your spouse’s income to pay the bills for years, or have been the primary wage earner for your family, a divorce might include ongoing spousal support payments. Our attorneys explain what spousal support is, how it is calculated, and what you can do to make sure any alimony award is fair.

What is Spousal Support?

Spousal support (which used to be, and sometimes still is, called alimony) is ongoing financial support paid by one spouse to his or her former spouse to provide for that spouse’s household and wellbeing. It can be paid while the divorce is pending, and continues after the judgment is final. This support is separate from any division of property and can be paid in addition to child support, even continuing after all the children are grown.

Spousal support is usually awarded for a set period of time, such as 2 years or 60 months. However, in some cases it is permanent, lasting as long as both parties are alive and the payee has not remarried. A judge can also place other conditions on this support, such as cohabitation with a significant other, the completion of job training or rehabilitation from a temporary disability.

Spousal support is not automatic, and it won’t be ordered in every case. Instead, it is a tool the court can use to make sure that the choices a couple made while they were together, such as when one parent stays home to care for the kids, won’t unfairly impact the financially disadvantaged spouse after the judgment is over.

How Does it Work?

Michigan spousal support awards are focused on allowing both parties to move forward with their lives after the divorce is final. It is not part of the property settlement. Since alimony is designed to help spouses in the future, judges awarding support are trying to:

  1. Balance the incomes and needs of both parties
  2. Avoid impoverishing either, forcing them to sell property awarded to them just to pay the rent

The law in Michigan says that the judge must look at the specific facts in each case to decide whether spousal support is appropriate. In Myland v Myland (290 Mich App 691 (2010)), the Michigan Court of Appeals made it clear that judges must carefully weigh the parties’ actual needs and resources, along with their future prospects and abilities to earn income in deciding whether to award support or not.

How the Court Decides

In deciding whether spousal support is appropriate, Michigan courts general rely on several factors:

  • Length of the Marriage
  • The parties' ages
  • Each party's health
  • The parties' needs
  • Ability to work
  • Ability to pay
  • Source and amount of property awarded
  • Possibility of improving a party's income-earning capacity
  • Prior standard of living
  • The parties' contribution to the marital estate
  • General principles of equity (or "fairness")
  • Significant issues of fault

This means that the longer you have been married, and the longer the non-wage-earning spouse has been out of the job market, the more likely it will be that the wage-earning spouse will need to pay alimony. However, many cases are not straight forward. A physical or mental disability could result in a support award in a short-term marriage. Similarly, a demonstrated ability to earn could reduce the chances a homemaker will receive permanent ongoing support.

Spousal support awards may also be made modifiable or non-modifiable. Either party in a case where modifiable alimony was awarded could petition a court to change or stop it based on a change of circumstances. The award can also be reserved and reopened at a later time.

Spousal support awards can be periodic, annual, monthly, or as a lump sum. Collection can be done through bank to bank transfer between the parties, or an order of income withholding from the payor’s employment, and disbursed through the office of the Friend of the Court.

Your divorce and spousal support attorney will help you put together evidence relating to each factor to help you prove whether support is appropriate in your case.

Child Support Formula vs Spousal Support Guidelines: They’re Not the Same

Many Michigan residents come into a divorce knowing about the Michigan Child Support Formula. This is a complicated mathematical formula that sets child support based on a mother’s income, father’s income, the number of overnights the child spends with each parent, and certain other factors. The resulting calculation is assumed to be the right amount of support unless one parent provides evidence that it is unfair and inappropriate and a court determines a deviation is appropriate.

Because the child support formula is so straightforward, many parties want to know what their “guidelines” are for spousal support. It is true that the software many lawyers use to calculate child support also provides a number for spousal support. The formulas that generate these support guidelines are based on:

  • The parties’ ages
  • The length of the marriage
  • Each parties’ income
  • The payee’s educational or employment history
  • Child support being paid or received
  • The day to day caregiving roles of the parties for their minor children

Based on these factors, the software generates a recommended spousal support amount per month and recommends how long the payments should continue. The software also roughly estimates the strength of the spousal support case by indicating a case score on a scale of 0-100%.

If support is a possibility in your case, your divorce and spousal support lawyer may well prepare one of these commonly-used spousal support guidelines reports to suggest a possible range for support. However, as discussed above, Michigan law requires judges to consider factors beyond finances. Whether you believe you are clearly entitled to this support, or that there is no way it should be awarded in your case, it will be up to you and your attorney to prove that fact, not simply submit the spousal support guidelines.

At NSSSB, we don’t rely on software to prove our spousal support cases for us. We will carefully review the facts in your case to help you understand whether spousal support is likely and to estimate how much you might expect to pay or receive. Then we collect evidence to prove to the judge that your position is fair and equitable based on demonstrated fact, not simply a set of guidelines. Click here to schedule a consultation with an attorney.