Supporting yourself and your children as a single parent isn’t easy, especially in the wake of divorce. If your marriage is ending, you might be wondering whether you might be entitled to receive alimony, and if so, how alimony might impact child support, especially if you’re a stay-at-home parent with children to support.
Questions about alimony and child support are among those most frequently asked. In this article, we’ll explore how alimony and child support work, whether child support impacts alimony, and why you might want to choose a collaborative divorce to negotiate alimony rather than putting the decision in the hands of a judge.
Table of Contents
- The Crucial Differences Between Alimony and Child Support
- How is Child Support Determined in Washington State?
- How is Alimony Determined in Washington State?
- Does Child Support Affect Alimony?
- Does Alimony Affect Child Support?
- How Collaborative Divorce Can Help with Alimony and Child Support
The Crucial Differences Between Alimony and Child Support
Alimony and child support are two distinct types of payments. While they are both payments made from one spouse to the other after divorce, they each serve separate purposes. Alimony is awarded to the spouse to help them maintain their standard of living, while child support is awarded to support the child.
Alimony (also known as spousal support in Washington state), is money paid to a former spouse to cover the spouse’s needs and to help them maintain the standard of living they enjoyed during the marriage. To put it simply, alimony is awarded based on a spouse’s need for it, and on the other spouse’s ability to pay. Alimony amounts and the length of payment depend on many factors, including the length of the marriage, disparity of incomes, and your spouse’s ability to afford alimony payments.
There are several reasons why alimony might be awarded to a lower-earning spouse in a divorce. Alimony is designed to protect a financially disadvantaged spouse during divorce and can compensate a spouse for sacrifices they may have made during the marriage to raise children, support their spouse’s career, academic pursuits, business, or goals. Alimony also preserves a lower-earning spouse’s standard of living.
That said, the amount of alimony that might be awarded in a divorce is discretionary. It’s up to a judge to decide what’s just or fair.
Under Washington law, RCW 26.09.090, alimony amounts are awarded as the “court deems just.” In other words, how much alimony you stand to receive, and how long you receive it, is entirely dependent on what the judge finds fair—unless, of course, you and your spouse can reach a private settlement agreement about alimony outside of court.
Unlike alimony, which is a right conferred to the spouse, child support is the right granted to the child, not the right of the parent—even though the parent typically receives child support payments on behalf of the child.
Under the law, every child has a right to receive financial support from both parents. Washington state child support amounts are based on the child support economic table you can find in RCW 26.19.020. While all aspects of a divorce can be subject to a judge’s discretion if the case ends up in court, it’s far easier to predict what a judge will do regarding child support because explicit economic tables exist, and the guidelines for deviations are clear.
While there are situations where child support may exceed recommended income tables, or fall below them, Washington law offers specific guidelines for when this should take place. Deviations, when they do occur, tend to occur for specific reasons. The judge might consider the residential schedule (especially if the child spends a significant amount of time with the parent who pays child support), whether there are other children from a prior relationship to support, a child’s special needs, and debt or other financial obligations.
Child support is based upon the “combined monthly net income” of both parents. Typically, the parent who has custody of the children most of the time receives child support payments from the parent who does not have custody. This is because the state assumes that the custodial parent is already covering the child’s daily expenses for food, housing, and clothing.
The goal of child support is to ensure that the children can continue to have the same standard of living they had when both parents lived together, while also covering their basic needs. There are situations where a higher-earning parent might have to pay child support to a lower-earning parent, even if the lower-earning parent doesn’t have custody of the children. And even when both parents plan to split parenting time equally, the higher-earning parent may be required to pay child support to the lower earning parent to ensure that the children enjoy a similar standard of living in both households.
In short, here’s the key distinction between alimony and child support.
- Alimony is the spouse’s right, and is money claimed by the spouse in a divorce. There are no fixed alimony tables. Alimony is discretionary, subject to negotiation and judicial decision-making. How much alimony you receive depends on many factors, including your separate income and assets, your education level and ability to support yourself, and the length of your marriage. Because alimony awards are ultimately discretionary — different judges might weigh these factors the same way — the strength of the case your attorney makes to support alimony—either in court or outside it—matters significantly.
- On the other hand, child support is the right of the child, and is money paid to support the child’s basic needs, including food, housing, medical care, clothing, and other expenses. The state sets basic child support tables. While one parent might periodically argue for a higher child support award than the amount listed in Washington’s economic tables, paying less is usually not an option, and requires that a parent show real economic hardship. There are clear laws and guidelines that govern when child support will be higher or lower than those listed in Washington state’s economic tables.
In the cases our attorneys work on, alimony is awarded in roughly 1 in 5 divorces.
How is Child Support Determined in Washington State?
It is relatively easy to get a rough estimate of how much you’ll likely receive in child support. Simply add up you and your spouse’s net income, including wages, salaries, bonuses, tips, commissions, and investment income, and look at the recommended support obligation listed beside it in Washington’s child support table.
Be sure to check that you’re using the most recent table. That is, the one that went into effect on January 1, 2026. (The website contains both the older and newer tables.)
The child support economic table that went into effect January 1, 2026, includes specific obligation amounts for one-child families up to families of five children. Typically, the custodial parent receives child support from the non-custodial parent. If you and your spouse plan for a shared custody arrangement, child support may be awarded to the lower-earning parent to ensure that the children can maintain a similar standard of living in both households.
Child support also lasts for a clearly defined period. There are certain circumstances where child support can extend to support a child while they attend college or receive post-secondary education. And there are situations where long-term child support may be required if a child has special needs. In most cases, child support ends at 18, or when a child graduates from high school—or at the oldest 23, or when a child finishes basic post-secondary education.
While there are certain issues that can lead to complications in calculating child support, in most cases we see, child support is a relatively straightforward calculation. Disputes around child support tend to revolve around accurately assessing both parents’ incomes (especially if one or both parents owns a business or has non W2 income sources), or disputes about whether child support should be paid in a 50-50 parenting split (in cases where there is a big income difference between the parents, the answer is yes).
How is Alimony Determined in Washington State?
Unlike child support, where there are clear economic tables with set amounts based on both parents’ combined incomes, alimony has no similar income-based table to determine calculations. Judges have wide discretion in how to allocate alimony amounts.
So, even though we can offer some basic guardrails below based on prior cases, a judge can deviate entirely from these scenarios. Alimony is awarded on a case-by-case basis.
Here are some basic factors that will contribute to alimony determinations:
- Your financial resources, including separate property
- Time required to gain work training or education
- The standard of living you enjoyed during the marriage
- How long you were married
- Your age, emotional health, and physical health
- Your spouse’s ability to pay alimony or spousal maintenance
Note that Washington state doesn’t consider fault as one of the factors. Unlike other jurisdictions and states, Washington state is a no-fault divorce state, meaning factors like infidelity don’t factor into alimony awards.
Under RCW 26.09.090, the court will consider your financial resources and your ability to support yourself. Your assets and separate property will be considered, as well as other factors, including your ability to work, or ability to receive training to earn a higher income in the future.
The courts will generally consider the length of the marriage when determining whether alimony is required, if at all—and whether it is temporary or permanent. The courts may award no alimony at all for a shorter marriage, while they might be more likely to award permanent alimony for those leaving marriages longer than 20 years.
In our experience, courts tend to award roughly one year of alimony for every three years of marriage, often as temporary support while a spouse pursues education or training.
In practice, alimony isn’t awarded in many divorces, because wealthier spouses tend to offer more assets in the divorce settlement in lieu of alimony. Financial resources are a factor a judge would use to decide whether alimony is warranted.
For a long marriage, the age of the spouse or their ability to receive education and training may be limited, so the spousal support award may be long-term or tied to retirement.
Again, special circumstances might lead to unique results. In even a short marriage, if one spouse is very wealthy, and the other spouse has no financial means to support themselves, the judge may award alimony.
The goal of alimony is to help a spouse maintain or obtain a standard of living like the one they enjoyed during the marriage.
Yet, judges have wide discretion in how alimony is awarded. When a case goes before a judge, it’s hard to predict how it will turn out.
Does Child Support Affect Alimony?
One of the relevant factors that a judge can consider, when calculating an alimony award is “the financial resources of the party seeking maintenance, including separate or community property… including the extent to which a provision for support of a child living with the party includes a sum for that party…” (RCW 26.09.090).
Child support that helps a parent pay the rent or their mortgage so that a child has a roof over their head, also covers the parent’s living expenses. Child support can also indirectly benefit the parent in other ways. For example, child support money that goes to cover a child’s internet access, or a car for transportation, also covers the parent’s access to transportation and other services.
This means that child support is one of the relevant factors that a judge can consider when determining the duration or amount of the alimony award. If child support covers your rent, food, and living expenses, the judge might ask you to justify why you need more.
In practice, however, alimony and child support serve entirely separate purposes. Child support is a right granted to the child, while alimony is a right granted to the parent. A child support award doesn’t replace an alimony obligation. If your lawyer can make a strong case that child support only pays to support your child’s standard of living and not your own, alimony amounts would need to be a separate consideration. An example might be using an alimony award to cover education or training expenses, or using it to launch a business.
Does Alimony Affect Child Support?
Child support is the right of the child, and it is considered separate from the alimony question. Because child support is based on the combined income of both parents, either parent’s payment or receipt of alimony won’t necessarily affect the child support owed, unless alimony is being paid to a third party from a prior marriage. In that case, alimony payments could impact the net income estimate.
How Collaborative Divorce Can Help with Alimony and Child Support
Collaborative divorce empowers you to make decisions about your divorce and finances that are best for you and your family. With collaborative divorce, you take the decision-making out of a judge’s hands and put it back in your own. Discretionary aspects of your divorce, like alimony, or spousal support, become topics for the negotiating table, rather than for the courtroom.
Even in a litigated or highly contentious divorce, couples are wise to keep their disputes outside the courtroom. When alimony is negotiated in private, couples have the option to find creative solutions. Many individuals who know that they will likely have to pay alimony work with their attorneys to structure their divorce settlement to give more assets to their spouse in lieu of paying alimony.
Working with a collaborative attorney at Truce® Law means that you and your spouse decide what’s right for your family, including making decisions about alimony.
A collaborative divorce lawyer can help you and your spouse understand what a judge would be likely to do in your situation. With collaborative divorce, rather than leaving the decision to a judge who doesn’t know your family, you and your spouse get the final say in what happens. Collaborative divorce gives you greater control over the outcome. It also keeps your financial details out of public court records — something many clients tell us matters as much as the outcome itself.
While sometimes alimony can offer much-required financial support to a lower-earning spouse, alimony isn’t the only path there.
Decisions about division of property and retirement accounts that consider the needs of the lower-earning spouse can have similarly protective effects.
Ready to explore whether alimony is on the table in your divorce. Book a Case Evaluation with our team.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is unique. For guidance specific to your circumstances, consult a licensed family law attorney in your area.