The attorneys at GillespieShields practice family, employment, civil, criminal, and immigration law.

When couples get divorced, one of the most common concerns is money. That’s why Arizona divorce attorneys spend much of their time trying to help their clients with alimony issues.

Alimony, referred to as spousal maintenance in Arizona, is designed to help spouses who earn significantly less money maintain the current standard of living after divorce. Traditionally, men are the ones who have paid alimony. However, now more women are holding higher-paying positions, and the question of whether women should pay alimony has become a big debate. Arizona divorce attorneys, divorce court judges, and, of course, the couples involved can find many angles to this issue.

In the past, it was common for husbands to earn the money while wives stepped out of the work world to raise the children. In this type of scenario, it made sense for men to pay alimony after a divorce.

These days, some wives are the breadwinners of the family. In certain instances, women are making all the income while the men are staying home to raise the children. In a healthy relationship, this division works just fine. Complications arise when couples decide to end a marriage.

Experienced divorce attorneys say they have seen bitter disputes about whether or not women should have to pay alimony to ex-husbands. Women argue that while they are successful in the work arena, they are also shouldering the bulk of the childcare duties simply because they are moms. For example, the school calls them when their kids are sick. They take the children to the dentist or to soccer practice. They also tend to get up in the middle of the night with the kids more than dads. Therefore, because they are doing “double duty,” they should not have to pay the fathers, they say.
On the other side of the argument, men have been paying alimony for years to former wives who gave up their careers to stay home and raise kids. Since the goal of alimony is to financially support someone who cannot support himself or herself, it should not matter whether that person is a man or a woman.

As this heated debate illustrates, there are two valid sides to the argument. What do you think?

Get Help with This Issue

If your divorce involves alimony issues or child support, you owe it to yourself to have experienced divorce attorneys on your side. Call for a consultation with the family law attorneys at GillespieShields.