The Short Answer: There Is No Average
If you searched “average alimony payment in Michigan,” you are looking for a number you can plug into a spreadsheet. That is the first question most of our divorce clients ask, and the honest answer is that there is no average, and any website that gives you one is misleading you.
Michigan has no alimony formula. Unlike child support, which follows a statewide calculation, spousal support is discretionary. Two couples with identical incomes and marriage lengths can receive completely different outcomes. The judge decides.
MCL 552.23(1) lets a court award spousal support when the property awarded to a spouse is “insufficient for the suitable support and maintenance” of that spouse, in an amount the court “considers just and reasonable” after weighing ability to pay, the character and situation of the parties, and all the other circumstances. That is the entire statutory framework, and notice where it starts: with the property division. Support and property go hand in glove. Everything else comes from decades of case law refining what “just and reasonable” means.
The 14 Factors That Actually Determine Your Alimony
Michigan courts evaluate spousal support using 14 factors developed through case law, as collected in Olson v Olson, 256 Mich App 619, 631 (2003), and quoted again in Berger v Berger, 277 Mich App 700, 726-727 (2008). No single factor is dispositive, the court must make findings on each factor relevant to the case, and the list is not closed.
1. Past relations and conduct of the parties
2. Length of the marriage
3. Abilities of the parties to work
4. Source and amount of property awarded to the parties
5. Ages of the parties
6. Abilities of the parties to pay alimony
7. Present situation of the parties
8. Needs of the parties
9. Health of the parties
10. Prior standard of living and whether either party is responsible for supporting others
11. Contributions of the parties to the joint estate
12. A party’s fault in causing the divorce
13. Effect of cohabitation on a party’s financial status
14. General principles of equity
In our experience, clients fixate on one or two factors they believe guarantee a result. A 20-year marriage with a big income gap does not automatically produce large, long-term support. And a 7-year marriage does not automatically mean zero.
The “Formula” You Read About Online
Websites that quote a percentage of the income difference as Michigan’s alimony rule are describing something that does not exist. What does exist is advisory software: guideline formulas some practitioners and some circuits use as a starting point, accepted to varying degrees from one county to the next, and which a judge is free to disregard. They do not capture disability, fault, lifestyle, the property award, or the debt each spouse carries out of the marriage.
Suppose one spouse earns $10,000 a month and the other $4,000. A percentage rule produces the same number whether the marriage lasted four years or twenty-four, and whether the lower earner received $50,000 in property or $500,000. Michigan law requires the court to consider all of that. Use a guideline range as a rough mental model if it helps, but do not treat it as a prediction.
What Alimony Looks Like in Real Scenarios
Short marriage (under 5 years), similar incomes. Alimony is unlikely absent unusual circumstances, such as one spouse abandoning a career for the marriage.
Medium marriage (5 to 15 years), income disparity. Rehabilitative support is the most common outcome: a period of years, commonly somewhere between two and eight depending on the circumstances, to allow retraining or reentry into the workforce. The goal is self-sufficiency, not permanent income replacement.
Long marriage (15 to 25+ years), significant income disparity. Support duration increases, and awards can run many years. One limit: Korth v Korth, 256 Mich App 286 (2003), holds that the relevant length is the marriage, not the relationship, so premarital cohabitation does not count.
Very long marriage (25+ years), traditional roles. Longer-term or indefinite support remains possible, particularly when age or health limits employment, but “permanent” is the exception, and it often ends in practice when the payor retires and the pensions divided as property start paying out.
High-income marriages. A generous property division may reduce the need for support, with one caveat from Olson: the court looks at the income the property award can actually produce, not its face value, and a spouse should not be expected to consume that award to live. The interplay between property division under MCL 552.19 and spousal support is where the real strategy happens.
The biggest mistake we see is treating alimony as a standalone issue. Property division, spousal support, and child support all work together. A larger property award often means less alimony, and a prenuptial agreement can shape or eliminate the question entirely.
Our property division and spousal support page explains how the two halves of that picture fit together.
The Tax Reality
For any divorce judgment entered after December 31, 2018, alimony is not deductible for the payor and not taxable to the recipient. Every dollar of support now costs a full after-tax dollar to pay and arrives tax-free, which has made many payors more resistant to higher amounts and shifted some negotiating advantage toward lump-sum property settlements.
When Alimony Changes or Ends
Periodic spousal support is modifiable. Under MCL 552.28, either party can petition to revise it, and the party asking must prove a change in circumstances since the judgment. A court cannot make its own award nonmodifiable, but the parties can agree to nonmodifiable support in a consent judgment, a choice that binds them even if a business later collapses.
A real drop in the payor’s income counts; rearranging its form does not, and a voluntary reduction may not. Retirement is a change in circumstances but not an automatic reduction, especially when the retirement income comes from a pension the court already divided. Remarriage under MCL 552.13(2), the court may terminate support as of the remarriage date unless the judgment says otherwise; it is discretionary, not automatic. Cohabitation ends nothing by itself unless the judgment contains a cohabitation clause that defines the term; without one, it matters only if it changes the recipient’s financial need.
Two points that surprise people. A judgment silent on spousal support has reserved it, so the court keeps the power to award it later; a judgment that denies support without reserving it generally cannot be reopened. And if you are paying and your circumstances change, keep paying and file immediately: under MCL 552.603(2), each payment becomes a judgment the day it is due, and a modification reaches back only to the date the other side received notice of your petition.
Frequently Asked Questions About Michigan Alimony
No. Michigan has no formula. The guideline software some attorneys use produces advisory ranges that judges are free to reject, and it cannot see fault, health, the property award, or debt.
Often, yes. Michigan courts enforce prenuptial agreements that were fairly procured and fair when signed, including support waivers. A waiver signed years earlier that would leave one spouse unable to support himself or herself after a long marriage is the provision most exposed to challenge; waivers in short marriages generally hold.
Fault is one of the 14 factors, and Michigan is a no-fault state. A judge can consider conduct such as abandonment or financial misconduct but must weigh all the factors and may not use alimony or the property division to punish a spouse. In Berger, the Court of Appeals reversed a property division that gave the husband’s affair disproportionate weight, while affirming the spousal support award in the same case.
Speak With a Michigan Divorce Attorney
In Michigan there is no average; there is only your case. Your income, your spouse’s income, your marriage length, your property, your health, your judge. The difference between a well-prepared spousal support case and an unprepared one is often tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the award.
Our divorce attorneys help families in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties and throughout Southeast, Central, and Mid-Michigan approach spousal support with realistic expectations, whether you are seeking support or preparing to pay it. To schedule a consultation, call Boroja, Bernier & Associates at (586) 991-7611.
About the Author
Joel Bernier, Esq., a partner at Boroja, Bernier & Associates PLLC, admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 2010 (Bar No. P74226). Joel focuses his practice on divorce and family law for families across Southeast, Central, and Mid-Michigan.
