Is there an alimony formula in my state?
The question everyone asks, and the answer almost nobody gives straight: in most of the United States there is no alimony formula at all. Not a secret one, not a rule of thumb the lawyers know. A judge weighs a list of statutory factors and decides. We found 4 states with a published formula, and they are below.
If your state has no formula, a calculator cannot have one either. What those sites are doing is applying somebody else’s state formula, or a county rule of thumb, or an invented one, to your facts and presenting the output as a number. We are not going to do that. What we can tell you is exactly which states publish a real formula, what it says, and where it is written.
The states with a published formula
Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado. Read the scope column carefully — several of these apply only to temporary support while the case is running, which is a different thing from what is ordered at the end.
| State | What it applies to | The rule as published | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | general (both temporary and post-divorce maintenance where combined gross income under statutory cap and no other disqualifying conditions) | 33 1/3% of the payor’s net annual income minus 25% of the payee’s net annual income (the sum awarded to the payee, when added to the payee’s net income, cannot exceed 40% of the parties’ combined net income); duration set by a statutory length-of-marriage multiplier table. | 750 ILCS 5/504 |
| Pennsylvania | temporary only (spousal support and Alimony Pendente Lite — pre-divorce-decree support; permanent/post-divorce alimony remains fully discretionary, based on a 17-factor test, with no numeric formula) | Where there is no child-support obligation between the parties: 40% of the difference between the parties’ net monthly incomes. Where the payor also pays child support to the payee: 30% of the difference between the parties’ net incomes after the child support obligation is subtracted from the payor’s net income. | 231 Pa. Code (Pa. R.C.P.) § 1910.16-4 |
| New York | temporary (pendente lite) and post-divorce (advisory guideline, rebuttable) | Temporary maintenance (DRL § 236(B)(5-a)) and post-divorce maintenance (DRL § 236(B)(6)) are each set using statutory percentage formulas applied to the parties’ incomes up to an income cap that is adjusted periodically by the state (the NY Courts’ own Temporary Maintenance Guidelines Worksheet references an income cap around $241,000 as of the 3/1/2026 revision). Formula generally described as the lower of two calculations: (a) 20% of payor income minus 25% of payee income, or (b) 40% of combined income minus payee income. | NY Domestic Relations Law § 236(B)(5-a) and § 236(B)(6) |
| Colorado | advisory guideline (courts must calculate and consider it, but may deviate; applies to marriages of at least 3 years and not more than 20, with combined gross income under a statutory ceiling) | Advisory maintenance amount = 40% of the parties’ combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower-earning party’s monthly adjusted gross income (subject to further statutory caps/duration tables by marriage length). | C.R.S. § 14-10-114 |
Everywhere else: factors, not arithmetic
The great majority of the 50 states plus DC do not use a numeric formula for alimony/spousal maintenance. Instead they direct courts to weigh a multi-factor discretionary test — commonly including length of the marriage, each spouse’s income/earning capacity and needs, age and health, standard of living during the marriage, contributions (including as homemaker), and marital misconduct in some states — with no statutory percentage or calculation. Only a small handful of states (see alimony_formula_states above) have adopted an actual numeric guideline formula, and even where one exists it is often limited to temporary/pendente lite support rather than permanent post-divorce alimony, or is expressly advisory/rebuttable rather than mandatory. Some counties within states without a statewide formula (e.g., certain California counties) apply informal local-court ‘rule of thumb’ calculations for temporary support, but these are local practices, not statewide law, and were not independently verified against an official county-court publication in this research pass, so they are not included in alimony_formula_states.
The factors are broadly similar across states even though the outcomes are not: the length of the marriage, the standard of living during it, each person’s income and earning capacity, what one of you gave up, health and age, and what each of you is left with after the property is divided. Your state page lists the ones your state actually names.
Not a formula. The length of the marriage, the size of the income gap, and what the judge in that courthouse tends to do — which is why a local lawyer’s read is worth more here than anywhere else in a divorce, and why the first question to ask one is what they have seen from this judge on these facts. Questions to ask.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from state legislature and judiciary sources, each linked. Texas is deliberately not in the table above: it has a statutory cap on amount and duration, which is not the same thing as a formula for calculating one. Corrections welcome.