Two ceilings, not one number

Published 2026-09-21 · Last reviewed 2026-09-22

A spouse asking what alimony would be is usually handed one number, and in Florida's statute there are two: how much may be paid each month, and how long it may be paid. The first is a share of the difference between the two incomes, which is arithmetic anyone can do. The second is a share of the marriage, which is arithmetic once a judge has decided which kind of alimony applies. This guide walks both, and is explicit about the part that is not arithmetic at all.

The difference between two incomes is the first number

Say one spouse takes home $6,000 a month and the other $2,000. The difference is $4,000, and the statute's amount ceiling is 35 percent of that: $1,400 a month, or $16,800 over a year. Those three lines are the whole amount calculation. It uses net income, which is why the calculator asks for take-home pay rather than salary: net income is defined in a different statute (s. 61.30(2) and (3), the child support one) and this site does not derive it for you.

The arithmetic has one edge worth knowing before you use it: if the two incomes are equal, the difference is zero and so is the ceiling. That is not the calculator being clever - it is the formula, and it is a decent reminder that this statute measures support against what a spouse is missing, not against what the other spouse earns.

A ceiling is not an award

The statute does not say "alimony is 35 percent of the difference". It says an award may not exceed that, and it also requires that the amount not exceed the receiving spouse's need - and need is a fact a court finds from evidence, not a line in a formula.

So $1,400 is the most the amount could be on these two incomes. The answer that matters is the smaller of that ceiling and the need, and this site can only compute one of the two. The page says so beside the result rather than letting a maximum read as an estimate.

How long it may run is a share of the marriage

The length ceiling works from which band of s. 61.08(5) the marriage falls in, and then takes a share of the marriage itself:

• short-term marriage - 0 years to under 10: an award may not exceed 50 percent of the length of the marriage.
• moderate-term marriage - 10 years to under 20: an award may not exceed 60 percent of the length of the marriage.
• long-term marriage - 20 years and up: an award may not exceed 75 percent of the length of the marriage.
• Below 3 years the statute rules the question out rather than shrinking it: a marriage of 2 years cannot produce a durational award at all, whatever the income difference is.

A 14-year marriage is a moderate-term marriage, so the share is 60 percent of 14 years: 101 months, which is about 8 years 5 months. Two other kinds of alimony in the same statute carry their own flat limits and no amount formula at all - bridge-the-gap alimony runs at most 2 years, and rehabilitative alimony at most 5 - which is why the calculator prints their lengths and never an amount for them.

Where these numbers come from

• Florida Statutes s. 61.08, served by the state's own legislature site. The section prints the 35 percent amount ceiling in (8)(c), the share of the marriage in (8)(b), the 3-year bar in (8)(a), the three bands in (5), and the 2 and 5 year limits in (6) and (7)(c). We keep a copy of the text those figures were read from, and every release checks each one against it, so a copying mistake stops the page from going out rather than reaching a reader.
• Net income - defined by s. 61.30(2) and (3), which is a child support statute, not this one. It is an input on the calculator rather than a computed line, and the page says so beside the field.
• The marriage's length - years from the date of the marriage to the date the dissolution was filed, which is how s. 61.08(5) counts it.
• Everything else is the court's: need, which kind of alimony applies, and whether any is awarded at all. This site prints no average award and no typical amount.

What this guide does not cover

Not covered: need and the evidence that establishes it; the other grounds and factors the statute lists, including adultery and a supportive relationship; taxes - the federal treatment of alimony changed in 2019 and this page takes no position on it; how child support and alimony interact on the same two incomes; modification and enforcement once an order exists; attorney's fees and costs; and temporary support while a case is pending.

Florida is also not the only state with a statute, and most of them print no formula at all - Ohio and Kansas are two this site names without a figure, because a number the statute does not contain is not something a calculator should invent. The rule the whole site follows is the one this page followed: quote a formula from the state's own text, or say plainly why there is no formula to quote.

Run your own two incomes and the length of the marriage in the Alimony Calculator, or start from the other side of the same family of rules with the Child Support Calculator - the two are decided from different statutes, which is exactly why one page cannot answer both.

An estimate of a statutory ceiling only - not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a prediction of what a court will order. Read the full disclaimer.