Spousal Maintenance in New York: How Long Will Payments Last? | Roven Law Group

Spousal maintenance is the question most divorcing clients want answered before they ask anything else. How much will I pay, or how much will I receive, and for how long? At Roven Law Group, that conversation gets easier than it used to be, because New York moved to a statutory formula in 2015 that pulled the guesswork out of the calculation. The amount is now formula-driven up to an income cap, and the duration is keyed to the length of the marriage through a set of advisory schedules. The real strategy lives in the factors that let a judge deviate from those defaults, and that’s where the experience of your attorney shows up in the final number.

Here’s how spousal maintenance actually works in New York after the 2015 reform, and what determines how long payments will last.

The Statutory Formula

The Maintenance Guidelines Law took effect January 23, 2016, and applies to all divorce actions filed on or after that date. It’s codified at DRL § 236(B)(5-a) for temporary maintenance during the case and DRL § 236(B)(6) for post-divorce maintenance. The two provisions use the same formula, with slight variations depending on whether child support is also being paid.

The calculation runs on payor income up to a statutory cap, which adjusts every two years for inflation. Effective March 1, 2026, the cap is $241,000, up from $228,000.

There are two formulas depending on whether the payor is also paying child support to the same payee:

When child support is being paid to the maintenance recipient, the court takes the lower of:

• 20% of the payor’s income minus 25% of the payee’s income, or
• 40% of combined income minus the payee’s income

When child support is not being paid to the recipient, the court takes the lower of:

• 30% of the payor’s income minus 20% of the payee’s income, or
• 40% of combined income minus the payee’s income

A working example helps. Take a Manhattan couple where the payor earns $200,000 and the payee earns $60,000, with no shared children. Under the no-child-support formula, the first calculation is 30% of $200,000 minus 20% of $60,000, which is $60,000 minus $12,000, or $48,000 per year. The second calculation is 40% of combined income minus the payee’s income, which is 40% of $260,000 minus $60,000, or $44,000 per year. The lower figure, $44,000 per year, is the presumptively correct maintenance award.

Income Above the $241,000 Cap

For payor income above $241,000, the court has discretion to apply the formula to the excess or to consider fifteen statutory factors to determine additional maintenance, if any. This is the area where the case really gets advocated. A high-earning Manhattan executive with $800,000 in annual income presents a very different maintenance picture if the formula stops applying at $241,000 versus if it gets extrapolated all the way up.

Courts in the five boroughs do extrapolate above the cap, particularly when the marital lifestyle was clearly funded by the higher earnings. Whether they apply the same percentage or look at the factors depends on the specific marriage, the receiving spouse’s actual financial need, and how the case is presented.

How Long Maintenance Lasts: The Durational Schedule

Duration is set by an advisory schedule tied to the length of the marriage:

• For marriages of 0 to 15 years, maintenance lasts 15% to 30% of the length of the marriage
• For marriages over 15 and up to 20 years, maintenance lasts 30% to 40% of the length of the marriage
• For marriages over 20 years, maintenance lasts 35% to 50% of the length of the marriage

A 10-year marriage produces a maintenance duration range of 1.5 to 3 years. A 17-year marriage produces a range of 5.1 to 6.8 years. A 25-year marriage produces a range of 8.75 to 12.5 years.

The schedule is advisory, not mandatory. Courts use it as a starting point and adjust based on the same fifteen factors that drive the amount calculation. In long-term marriages, particularly where one spouse left the workforce decades ago and has limited ability to rebuild a career, judges in Manhattan and the Bronx have awarded non-durational maintenance, meaning indefinite payments terminating only on the death of either party, the remarriage of the recipient, or further court order.

The Fifteen Deviation Factors

The statute lists fifteen factors that allow the court to deviate from the formula amount, the duration range, or both. A few carry more weight in practice than others:

• Age and health of both parties, particularly where one spouse has a medical condition that affects earning capacity
• Present and future earning capacity of both parties, including the time and training needed for the receiving spouse to become self-supporting
• The need of one party to incur education or training expenses
• Acts by one party against the other that inhibited or continue to inhibit earning capacity
• Wasteful dissipation of marital property
• Tax consequences to each party
• Standard of living established during the marriage
• Care of children or stepchildren, disabled adult children, elderly parents, or in-laws that has inhibited a party’s earning capacity
• The reduced or lost earning capacity of the receiving spouse as a result of having forgone education, training, employment, or career opportunities during the marriage

The “forgone career opportunities” factor matters more than people expect. A spouse who left a partner-track job at a law firm to raise children twenty years ago is in a fundamentally different position than a spouse who never worked outside the home for reasons unrelated to the marriage, and courts recognize the difference.

Termination and Modification

Maintenance ends automatically on the death of either party or the remarriage of the recipient. It can also be terminated or modified if the recipient is found to be cohabiting with another person in a relationship that functions like a marriage, under DRL § 248. Cohabitation cases require evidence of shared finances, shared residence, and a holding-out as a couple, not just dating.

Either spouse can move to modify maintenance based on a substantial change in circumstances. The 15% income change rule that applies to child support does not automatically apply to maintenance, but a significant involuntary income reduction by the payor or a meaningful improvement in the recipient’s earning capacity can both support a modification motion.

How Roven Law Group Approaches Maintenance Cases

The formula is the starting point. The real work is building the case for deviation, whether you’re arguing for a higher award, a longer term, or a lower number. That means documenting the marital lifestyle, presenting credible expert testimony on earning capacity where appropriate, and tying every factor argument back to specific evidence rather than narrative. Janice G. Roven has been handling maintenance cases for NYC clients for more than 35 years, including high-income matters that require extrapolation above the statutory cap.

For readers who want the underlying authority directly, DRL § 236(B)(5-a) and (6) set out the statutory framework, and the New York State Unified Court System publishes a maintenance calculator at nycourts.gov.

The Bottom Line

Maintenance in New York is more predictable than it was a decade ago, but the durational schedule is advisory and the deviation factors give judges meaningful room to shape the result. To get a realistic projection of what maintenance is likely to look like in your situation, including whether the case justifies extrapolation above the cap or a longer term in a long marriage, schedule a consultation with Roven Law Group.