Alimony vs. spousal support vs. spousal maintenance — what's the difference?
Short answer: nothing. Alimony, spousal support, and spousal maintenance all describe the same thing — periodic payments from one ex-spouse to the other after divorce. The word a state uses is just the label in its statutes. What actually matters is the specific law behind the label.
Why do states use different names?
Family law in the United States is entirely state law — there is no federal alimony statute. Each state legislature chose its own terminology when it wrote (or rewrote) its divorce statutes. Some states adopted "spousal support" or "spousal maintenance" in the 1970s–1990s as part of a modernization push to move away from the gendered connotations of "alimony" (derived from Latin alimonia, meaning nourishment or sustenance).
The name has no effect on whether a court will award support, how much it will award, or how long it will last. Those outcomes depend entirely on the state's substantive law.
Which states use which term?
"Alimony" (33 states)
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming
"Spousal Support" (2 states)
California, Oregon
"Spousal Maintenance" (15 states)
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin
Does the name change the rules?
No — the name is just a label. Two states can use identical terminology and have completely different rules. Compare:
- New York calls it "spousal maintenance" and has a mandatory statutory formula that courts must follow. The math is specified in the statute.
- Missouri also calls it "maintenance" but the award is almost entirely discretionary — a judge weighs a list of factors with no formula whatsoever.
Likewise, Florida and Georgia both say "alimony" — but Florida's 2023 reform introduced strict durational caps while Georgia remains one of the most open-ended, judge-discretion systems in the country.
Types of alimony within a state
Beyond the naming question, most states recognize several types of support, which can overlap:
- Temporary / pendente lite — awarded during the divorce proceeding, before the final decree
- Rehabilitative — time-limited, designed to support the lower-earning spouse while they retrain or re-enter the workforce
- Durational — fixed term, not tied to a rehabilitation goal
- Permanent / indefinite — continues until a triggering event (remarriage, death, cohabitation), typically only in long marriages
- Reimbursement — compensates a spouse who supported the other through professional school or a career investment
- Lump-sum — a one-time payment instead of periodic payments; not modifiable after entry
Our calculator uses the correct term for each state
Every state page on this site uses the legally correct term for that state. California's calculator says "spousal support," New York's says "spousal maintenance," and Florida's says "alimony" — because those are the terms used in the applicable statutes.
When you search for "[your state] alimony calculator" or "[your state] spousal support calculator," both searches should lead you to the right page regardless of which term your state uses.