Arizona Spousal Maintenance (Alimony): Eligibility, Calculation, and the 2025 Guidelines
Key Takeaways
- Spousal maintenance (Arizona's term for alimony) is not automatic. You must meet at least one of five eligibility factors under A.R.S. § 25-319(A) before the court will consider an award.
- Arizona adopted new Spousal Maintenance Guidelines in 2023 (updated September 2025) that use a standardized calculator to produce amount and duration ranges, replacing the old system where awards varied dramatically from judge to judge.
- The purpose of spousal maintenance in Arizona is self-sufficiency — the court awards it only for the time and amount necessary to help the receiving spouse become financially independent.
- Marital misconduct — including affairs, substance abuse, or domestic violence — is not a factor in determining spousal maintenance under A.R.S. § 25-319(C). The analysis is strictly financial.
- There is no minimum marriage length required to qualify, but the duration of the marriage is one of the most significant factors in determining how long maintenance payments will last.
Spousal maintenance is one of the most misunderstood aspects of Arizona divorce law. Many people assume that a longer marriage automatically guarantees alimony, or that a spouse who caused the marriage to fail will be punished financially. Neither is true. Arizona's spousal maintenance system is designed around a single principle: ensuring that both spouses can support themselves after the marriage ends.
This guide explains who qualifies, how the amount and duration are calculated under the new 2025 guidelines, and what you should know if spousal maintenance is likely to be part of your divorce.
What Is Spousal Maintenance?
Spousal maintenance is a court-ordered payment from one spouse to the other during or after a divorce. Arizona does not use the term "alimony" in its statutes, though the words are used interchangeably in everyday conversation. The governing statute is A.R.S. § 25-319, which was significantly amended in 2022 and took effect on September 24, 2022.
The purpose of spousal maintenance is not to punish the higher-earning spouse or to reward the lower-earning spouse. It exists to address the economic reality that many marriages create: one spouse earns significantly more than the other, often because the lower-earning spouse sacrificed career opportunities to raise children, support the other spouse's education, or manage the household. Spousal maintenance provides a financial bridge while the receiving spouse rebuilds their earning capacity.
The Five Eligibility Factors
Before the court considers how much maintenance to award or for how long, it must first determine whether the requesting spouse is eligible. Under A.R.S. § 25-319(A), a spouse qualifies if they meet at least one of the following five factors.
Factor 1: Insufficient property. The spouse lacks sufficient property, including property awarded in the divorce, to provide for their reasonable needs. This means that even after dividing community assets, the requesting spouse does not have enough to support themselves. For a detailed explanation of how Arizona divides property, see our .
Factor 2: Unable to be self-sufficient through employment. The spouse is unable to be self-sufficient through appropriate employment, or is the custodian of a child whose age or condition makes it inappropriate for the spouse to work outside the home. This factor often applies to stay-at-home parents or spouses who have been out of the workforce for many years.
Factor 3: Contributed to the other spouse's education. The spouse contributed to the educational opportunities of the other spouse. This is sometimes called the "working spouse" factor — if you worked to put your spouse through medical school, law school, or another advanced degree program, you may be eligible for maintenance to compensate for that investment.
Factor 4: Long marriage and age. The marriage was of long duration and the spouse is of an age that may preclude the possibility of gaining employment adequate to be self-sufficient. There is no specific number of years that qualifies as "long duration," but marriages of 15 years or more are generally considered in this category.
Factor 5: Significantly reduced income or career opportunities. The spouse significantly reduced their income or career opportunities for the benefit of the other spouse. This is broader than Factor 3 and can include situations where a spouse relocated for the other's career, turned down promotions to maintain family stability, or left a career entirely.
Meeting one of these factors makes you eligible for spousal maintenance. It does not guarantee an award. The court then moves to the calculation phase to determine whether an award is appropriate and, if so, how much and for how long.
How Spousal Maintenance Is Calculated: The 2025 Guidelines
Prior to 2023, Arizona had no standardized formula for calculating spousal maintenance. Judges considered a list of factors under A.R.S. § 25-319(B) and made subjective determinations. This led to wildly inconsistent outcomes — two families with nearly identical financial situations could receive dramatically different awards depending on which judge heard their case.
The Arizona Legislature changed this in 2022 by directing the Arizona Supreme Court to develop Spousal Maintenance Guidelines. The first version took effect in July 2023, and an updated version became effective on September 1, 2025 (adopted under Administrative Order 2025-101). These guidelines use a standardized calculator that produces amount and duration ranges, bringing consistency and predictability to the process.