Some alimony statistics:

• Americans paid $9.4 billion in alimony to former spouses in 2007.  (IRS)
• That’s up from $5.6 billion a decade earlier.  (IRS)
• 97% of alimony-payers were men last year.   (U.S. Census)
• The percentage of women supporting ex-husbands is increasing.  (U.S. Census)
• Women made up 46.7% of the work force last year.  (DOL)
• That’s up from 41.2% in 1978.  (DOL)
• Women, 45 to 54 years old, earn 75% as much as men the same age.

– from “The New Art of Alimony” by Jennifer Levitz for the Wall Street Journal