Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal looked into the changing landscape of spousal-support expectations in the US. The law and implementation of it varies widely from state to state, but there are some good overall numbers that I thought I’d share with you. In the comments section of the original article, people are sharing their divorce horror stories and shocker, there are a bunch of depressing ones, to say the least. Maybe you can scan through and be heartened that your life is not so?
Happy thoughts, people, happy thoughts!
Many states put formal alimony laws into place in the 1960s and 1970s, amid rising divorce rates and concerns that women earned less than men. States such as California and Massachusetts passed laws that included provisions for indefinite alimony. More-conservative Texas, by comparison, generally limited payments to three years.
Many divorce agreements provide for alimony or spouse-support payments, which is separate from child-support payments. Americans gave $9.4 billion to former spouses in 2007, up from $5.6 billion a decade earlier, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Men accounted for 97% of alimony-payers last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, although the share of women supporting ex-husbands is on the rise.
Critics argue that in the decades since alimony guidelines were set, the U.S. has changed much: Women made up 46.7% of the work force last year, up from 41.2% in 1978, according to the Department of Labor. Others counter that America hasn’t changed enough: Women in the 45-to-54-year-old age group earn 75% as much as men the same age.
Born Curious 
If only more than 76 people could hear this!