I've been reading a lot on this forum about spousal support and can't seem to understand one key aspect when it comes to income disparity and spousal support.
I've come to understand that entitlement for SS is factored in three ways: compensatory, non-compensatory and contractual. My situation isn't affected by contractual obligations, but I think the other two will affect the outcome.
I know income disparity alone doesn't constitute entitlement, unless its a significant amount.
When determining compensatory and non-compensatory SS, will the law/court take into account only the previous year income or is it more nuanced than that and include longer history? I am asking, because in my example, one partner had a higher earning income for most of the marriage until the last year--which even resulted in job loss and a non-working partner. Marriage lasted 6 years.
If arguing for entitlement using just the last year, wouldn't there be a situation where all of the sudden the person earning the lower wage becomes the sole earner and thereby creating a "significant disparity in income" with no change at all to their career situation?
If I made 70k and partner made 12k in last year due to job loss (they made 80-85k all previous years) does that mean our gross income (for potential use with the SS Guideline) is 82k with me earning 85% of it in the last year?
Any other year it would have been gross combined income of ~155k, with me earning 45% of it.
Bottom line, I am trying to understand what "significant disparity" means and if history longer than one year is used to determine it.
I've come to understand that entitlement for SS is factored in three ways: compensatory, non-compensatory and contractual. My situation isn't affected by contractual obligations, but I think the other two will affect the outcome.
I know income disparity alone doesn't constitute entitlement, unless its a significant amount.
When determining compensatory and non-compensatory SS, will the law/court take into account only the previous year income or is it more nuanced than that and include longer history? I am asking, because in my example, one partner had a higher earning income for most of the marriage until the last year--which even resulted in job loss and a non-working partner. Marriage lasted 6 years.
If arguing for entitlement using just the last year, wouldn't there be a situation where all of the sudden the person earning the lower wage becomes the sole earner and thereby creating a "significant disparity in income" with no change at all to their career situation?
If I made 70k and partner made 12k in last year due to job loss (they made 80-85k all previous years) does that mean our gross income (for potential use with the SS Guideline) is 82k with me earning 85% of it in the last year?
Any other year it would have been gross combined income of ~155k, with me earning 45% of it.
Bottom line, I am trying to understand what "significant disparity" means and if history longer than one year is used to determine it.
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