How do you feel about situations where wife earns way more than husband?

[Dida]

Currently my wife and I make about the same amount working in NYC. We each make boat loads of $$$ but have little time for each other or anything else. The plan is to move to some place perhaps in the mountain states where she will make even more but work less, but I will probably make way less. Would that bother anyone, man or woman?

EDIT: the intent of the move is not to make more money, we are happy with our level of income as it is. It is to have more free time and nice living environment. In smaller markets she will work less and make more; I will work less and make way less (if market is too small, I may not be able to find any meaningful job in my field). Given this change she will likely make 2x-3x more.

 

[Skwink]

Wouldn't bother me a bit.

 

[Dumanios]

I don't care.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Why would this bother anyone?

More money is more money.

 

[peter grimes]

Currently my wife and I make about the same amount working in NYC. We each make boat loads of $$$ but have little time for each other or anything else. The plan is to move to some place perhaps in the mountain states where she will make even more but work less, but I will probably make way less. Would that bother anyone, man or woman?

Howdie neighbor!

My wife makes more than I do, but she works 1.5 ~ 1.75 jobs. We are both in the StageHands Union, but different locals. On an hourly basis she makes more than I do by about 15 to 20%. It's not an issue, except in perhaps a reverso way from what you might expect. She's annoyed that I don't earn more. But my job affords us the flexibility of scheduling to handle many of the tasks that she can't do due to her inflexible schedule...

Equal pay for equal work is not controversial. In the US women are still payed significantly less than people who have testicles for doing the exact same job; that's not right.

 

[Dida]

In the US women are still payed significantly less than people who have testicles for doing the exact same job; that's not right.

Oh? That's news to me and perhaps to virtually anyone. I have not seen or heard any instance where women get paid less for doing exactly the same job as men. You must be getting your news from some weird screwed up source where they report fancy stats.

 

[MjM]

Who cares? If she's your wife, and you love her, you should be thrilled you get to spend more time with her!

 

[Patroklos]

Jealous.

 

[Kozmos]

I'd be happy to be a stay-at-home dad. I have far too many projects and tests to run.

 

[ZeletDude]

Why would this bother anyone?

More money is more money.

Beat me to it

 

[stormerne]

It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother my wife either.

 

[Zelig]

I'm actively trying to seduce Liliane Bettencourt.

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

Too lazy to look for it, but I think I recall reading somewhere that marriages in which the woman makes substantially more than the man end up in divorce at a greater rate than average.

 

[downtown]

I've dated girls who make more than me, and if I stay with my current girlfriend, it's quite possible she'll earn more than I will over the course of our careers. I've never minded it, although I make sure that I'm pulling my weight in other ways if she has to pick up the check more than I do. Nobody likes being a deadbeat.

 

[NetGear]

it does matter. but you can deal with it. I'd say move unless you don't like the location. More money is more money.

 

[Maniacal]

Whoopdy freaking do?

 

[Boundless]

I wouldn't care if I earned more or less than my hubbie. What's mine is yours n all that.

 

[ParkCungHee]

I feel that I'd like to be in one.

 

[History_Buff]

Good job wife? Didn't we have a poll on this a few months back?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I would not be bothered, provided that the reason for her higher pay is not inherent danger of the job or unusually long working hours that don't give us much time together.

Oh? That's news to me and perhaps to virtually anyone. I have not seen or heard any instance where women get paid less for doing exactly the same job as men. You must be getting your news from some weird screwed up source where they report fancy stats.

It has been said that women are only paid seventy or eighty something cents on the dollar as men for the same jobs, but such studied completely ignore important factors like how long they have been doing those jobs.

Most of the difference in pay is there because employers often base pay on experience rather than trying more sophisticated means of measuring skill. Women tend to take maternity leave just before the point that men start getting their most significant raises, and often wait long enough to return to work that their experience becomes outdated while their male peers keep going up in pay grade.

Men are also more likely to be the sort of risk takers that demand raises or promotions, but there are plenty of males who are more passive in such regards than most women. (This has also been given as a reason why Asians don't often make it past middle management.)




One thing I found somewhat amusing in the last presidential election is that while Obama's platform included making sure that women were paid as much as men, he only paid the women working for his campaign about 60% as much. McCain opposed legislation on the matter, but paid the women working for his campaign almost 20% more than he paid the men. It isn't really comparable though, as McCain had a lot more female senior advisers and a lot fewer females working at the grass roots.