Maintenance is also referred to as spousal support or alimony.  Maintenance is awarded to the spouse who needs time to become self-supporting.  Maintenance is generally not a lifetime award, unless the age of the spouse and the number of years out of the workforce make it unlikely that spouse will ever become self-supporting.  Whereas children have an absolute right to child support, spouses do not have automatic entitlement to maintenance.  The court has a great deal of discretion when determining whether or not maintenance is appropriate and how much to award.

While the case is pending in court, temporary maintenance is now available under a statutory formula (for cases commenced after October 2010.)  The formula provides that if one spouse earns less than 2/3 the income of the other spouse, temporary maintenance is payable to the lower earning spouse, and is calculated as follows: 

LESSER of - (a) 30% of the payor's income minus 20% of the payee's income, and (b) 40% of the combined income of both spouses, minus the payee spouse's income.  There is some discretion to deviate from the formula, and payor income is capped at $500K for the purposes of this calculation.  However, this may be used as the starting point for estimating interim maintenance that would be available while a divorce case is pending.