In a recent Reuters article about a Nashville divorce case involving an entrepreneur husband and orthopedic surgeon wife, contributor Geoff Williams wrote: “Society is starting to catch up to the law. In 1979, with Orr vs. Orr, the Supreme Court made it clear that there shouldn’t be gender bias when it comes to alimony. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that some men don’t always have equal outcomes when it comes to receiving spousal support.”
Although the percentage of men receiving spousal support after a divorce is still relatively small, an informal study cited by the article shows that 47% of divorce attorneys surveyed reported seeing an increase in men receiving alimony. Combine this trend with more detailed research suggesting that “couples where the wife earns more than the husband are less satisfied with their marriage and are more likely to divorce,” and you have the potential for major changes in the institution(s) of marriage (and divorce). This report by Pew Research Center shows an increasing proportion of marriages in which the wife’s education level exceeds the husband’s, from 20% in 1970 to 28% in 2007.
Current Tennessee law recognizes several types of spousal support; “alimony in futuro” is the type intended to provide support on a long-term basis until the death or remarriage of the recipient. (Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-121(f)(1)). This type of alimony may be awarded where the court finds that there is “relative economic disadvantage [between the husband and wife] and that rehabilitation is not feasible.”
There exists a public perception that alimony is awarded—traditionally to the ex-wife—so that she may maintain the same standard of living after the marriage that she had during the marriage.
However, alimony is supposed to be gender-neutral. And if support is awarded, the amount should not be based solely on the “same standard of living” metric. Rather, alimony in futuro is deemed appropriate when “the disadvantaged spouse is unable to achieve, with reasonable effort, an earning capacity that will permit the spouse’s standard of living after the divorce to be reasonably comparable to the standard of living enjoyed during the marriage, or to the post-divorce standard of living expected to be available to the other spouse,” per Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-121(f)(1). Although there are several moving parts to this equation and a long list of factors to be considered—the length of the marriage, previous and current incomes, other available financial resources, age, physical and mental health, and the division of parental responsibilities, to name a few—the primary question for the court is: What are the reasonable relative earning capacities of the soon-to-be ex-husband and ex-wife?
In addition to more men receiving alimony, other assumptions and beliefs about the roles of husbands and wives are changing the way courts look at divorce settlements and rulings.
For further reading on this subject, see 12/3/12 All About Alimony post
