When Should Alimony Be Permanent?

A wife and husband, both fifty years old, had been married for twenty-nine years. During the first three years of the marriage, the wife worked as a high school physical education teacher. The parties then had four children, and the wife left her full-time job to take care of the home and children for twenty-five years. The husband worked continuously during the marriage, and, at the time of divorce, was an administrator for a charitable organization, earning $77,000 per year. The wife had resumed teaching and her salary was $30,000 per year. Her salary would have been significantly higher, and she would have had substantial retirement benefits, had she continued teaching full-time during the marriage. On these facts, the Illinois Appellate Court held that the wife was entitled to permanent maintenance (alimony) in the amount of $600 per month. The court said: “Marriage is a partnership, not only morally, but financially. Spouses are coequals, and homemaker services must be recognized as significant when the economic incidents of divorce are determined. The [wife] should not be penalized for having performed her assignment under the agreed-upon division of labor within the family.”

Source: In re Marriage of Drury (Illinois Appellate Court, 2000).