New York spousal maintenance formula, caps, and duration

New York calculates spousal maintenance with arithmetic, not argument. Two formulas, an income cap, and a duration schedule tied to the length of the marriage. Run the numbers and you have the presumptive answer before anyone files anything.

The judgment calls come after, and they matter most at the top and the bottom of the income range.

How is spousal maintenance calculated in New York?

Start by identifying the roles. Section 236(B)(6)(b) defines the payor as the spouse with the higher income and the payee as the spouse with the lower income. Nothing about gender, and nothing about who filed.

Then apply one of two formulas to the payor's income up to the cap. Which one depends on whether child support is also being paid and who the custodial parent is.

Formula one: child support is being paid and the payor is the non-custodial parent

Take the lower of these two results:

• (20% of payor income) − (25% of payee income)

• (40% of combined income) − (payee income)

If the lower number is zero or less, guideline maintenance is zero.

Formula two: no child support, or the payor is the custodial parent

Take the lower of these two results:

• (30% of payor income) − (20% of payee income)

• (40% of combined income) − (payee income)

Same rule at the bottom: zero or less means no guideline maintenance.

The second calculation in each pair is the one people forget, and it is the one that binds in unequal-income marriages. It caps the payee's post-maintenance income at 40 percent of the couple's combined income.

Which income figure goes into the formula?

Income as defined in the Child Support Standards Act, without subtracting maintenance paid or to be paid to the spouse in this case, plus income from income-producing property being distributed in the divorce.

That second piece is worth noticing. If the property division hands one spouse a rental building, the income it throws off counts in the maintenance calculation.

What is the income cap for maintenance in New York?

$241,000 of the payor's annual income, effective March 1, 2026, per the court system's combined maintenance and child support worksheet.

The cap is not a ceiling on what a payor can be ordered to pay. It is the ceiling on the formula. Section 236(B)(6)(d) says the court runs the calculation on income up to the cap, and then any additional maintenance on income above it is discretionary, decided on the fifteen statutory factors. The court has to set out the factors it considered and its reasons in writing or on the record, and neither party nor counsel can waive that.

The cap started at $184,000 and rises every two years on March 1 by the average annual change in the CPI-U, rounded to the nearest thousand, with the Office of Court Administration publishing the figure. If you are reading this well after March 2026, check the current number before you rely on it.

Is there a floor on New York maintenance?

Yes, tied to the self-support reserve. Where guideline maintenance would push the payor's income below the self-support reserve for a single person, the award is limited to the difference between the payor's income and the reserve. If the payor's income is already below it, there is a rebuttable presumption that no maintenance is awarded.

The self-support reserve is $21,546, effective March 1, 2026.

How long does spousal maintenance last in New York?

Section 236(B)(6)(f)(1) gives an advisory schedule based on the length of the marriage, measured from the date of marriage to the date the action is commenced:

• 0 up to and including 15 years: 15% to 30% of the length of the marriage

• More than 15 up to and including 20 years: 30% to 40%

• More than 20 years: 35% to 50%

So a ten year marriage produces an advisory range of 1.5 to 3 years, and a twenty-five year marriage produces 8.75 to 12.5 years.

The word advisory is doing real work. The court has to consider the fifteen factors and state which ones it considered in a written decision or on the record, and the statute expressly preserves the power to award non-durational maintenance in an appropriate case. A thirty year marriage where one spouse has no earning history is exactly that case.

The court also has to take both parties' anticipated retirement assets, benefits, and retirement eligibility age into account when setting duration, where those can be worked out at the time of decision.

When can a New York judge depart from the maintenance guideline?

When the guideline obligation is unjust or inappropriate, based on one or more of the fifteen factors in section 236(B)(6)(e)(1). The court orders the guideline amount up to the cap unless it makes that finding, and if it deviates it has to say which factors drove the decision and why.

The factors cover the ground you would expect: the age and health of the parties, present and future earning capacity including a history of limited participation in the workforce, the need for education or training, whether the payee's earning capacity was reduced by delayed or forgone education or career opportunities during the marriage, care of children or elderly parents that inhibited earning capacity, the standard of living during the marriage, the equitable distribution award and the income on the assets distributed, the availability and cost of medical insurance, tax consequences, and acts by one party against the other that inhibited their ability to get meaningful employment, expressly including domestic violence.

Two of the fifteen are easy to miss and worth raising if they fit you. One is the existence and duration of a pre-marital joint household or a pre-divorce separate household, which lets a couple who lived together for years before marrying argue that the length of the marriage understates the partnership. The other addresses what happens when a child support award ends before the maintenance award does, in a case where maintenance was calculated lower because child support was being paid.

Maintenance and property division get decided together, and the maintenance award is itself one of the sixteen equitable distribution factors. A larger share of the assets can substitute for a longer support term, and often does.

Does maintenance get calculated before or after child support in New York?

Before, always. Section 236(B)(6)(c)(1)(g) says maintenance is calculated first because the amount is subtracted from the payor's income and added to the payee's income as part of the child support calculation.

That ordering has a real consequence. A maintenance award moves income across the line before the child support percentages get applied, so the two numbers cannot be negotiated independently. The child support chapter covers what happens on the other side of that transfer.

When does spousal maintenance end in New York?

On the death of either party, or on the payee's marriage, valid or invalid, or on modification. That is section 236(B)(6)(f)(3).

Modification is available under section 236(B)(9)(b)(1) on a showing that the payee is unable to be self-supporting, or a substantial change in circumstances including financial hardship, or the payor's actual full or partial retirement where it substantially changes their financial circumstances.

There is a much higher bar where the maintenance terms came from an agreement rather than a trial. Where an agreement remains in force, no modification can be made without a showing of extreme hardship. If you are signing a settlement that fixes maintenance, understand that you are largely locking it.

What about temporary maintenance while the case is pending?

New York runs a separate guideline for temporary maintenance, using the same structure and the same income cap, and it ends no later than the issuance of the judgment. It is available in contested actions rather than uncontested ones.

Temporary awards get set at or around the preliminary conference, which is one more reason the statement of net worth filed ten days beforehand carries so much weight. The number a judge sets early tends to anchor the negotiation that follows.

What if a spouse is unrepresented?

The court cannot enter a maintenance order or judgment without first informing the unrepresented party what the post-divorce maintenance guideline obligation would be. That is section 236(B)(6)(g), and it exists because the formula is easy to waive by accident when nobody has explained what is being given up.