Can a spouse who has worked throughout their marriage suffer economic disadvantage when that marriage ends?

Nova Scotia, Canada


The following excerpt is from MacLean v MacLean, 2017 NSSC 263 (CanLII):

Spouses who have worked throughout a marriage can suffer economic disadvantage when that marriage ends. They also may have a compensatory claim. In such cases typically there is a spouse who has a higher income and there are children who are primarily parented by the spouse with the lower income. Such spouses do not spend time seeking out careers that would provide them with higher incomes because they have become dependent on the primary income earner and they place more emphasis on parenting the children and attending to their partner’s needs than they do in obtaining personal economic security. Significant differences in incomes at the breakdown of the marriage may be used to determine whether a compensatory entitlement exists. (Moge v. Moge 1992 CanLII 25 (SCC), [1992] 3 SCR 813. and Bracklow v. Bracklow 1999 CanLII 715 (SCC), [1999] 1 SCR 420)

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