what constitutes 'equal incomes'?

Hi all, or else to the wikiforce team,

I am just about at Decree Nisi stage in my divorce and trying to work out the likely financial outcome. My soon-to-be-ex-wife and I share all property assets equally, have a joint bank account, joint mortgage, joint debts, share equal childcare for our 2 teenage sons, are fairly even on our pension values, etc. Since we live in London our property assets are now fairly large due to the ridiculous house inflation in the city.

However, I see from the Divorce Calculator notes that it says it might not be relevant for those cases where both parties are working and have fairly equivalent salaries. So my question is quite a specific one, which is does anyone know what in legal terms constitutes equivalent salaries? I am on about £55K, my wife is on £42K, a difference of about 15-20% in salaries. Is that within the range of equal salaries, or not? I was expecting a 50/50 split of assets, but might this not be the case based on this salary difference? Could it be made more in her favour? Is she likely also to be given child maintenance for the next 2 years before my younger son leaves school? There are enough property profits to house both of us, and so it just seems to be the salary issue and whether this affects the split and whether I am going to be hit for maintenance as well. On the form she says she is going to try to get everything out of me - hence my need to work out what the damage might be. I also tried to use the CSA Child Maintenance Calculator instead, as recommended here, but that just says it doesn't work for cases where both parents share childcare equally.

Am I missing something important? Any help gratefully received......

Thanks, M

Hi Fiona,

Many thanks for that speedy reply, and I had missed that section on the CSA site. It doesn't seem that unreasonable, if I have now got the sums right.

Can I perhaps ask how you know about the salary discrepancy stuff? Is that from your own personal experience, or have you just been reading a lot on these aspects?! I can only hope that you are not in the same quagmire as me! If there are any legal sources or websites you can point me to on the comparative salary levels issue, again that would be gratefully received. It is just that I would like to be prepared.

Best wishes, M