Abby Connolly
There are many couples who live happily together even if they don’t make nearly the same amount of money as each other. It’s all about working together to build a life that makes you happy and contributing both financially and emotionally.
However, some couples with major wage differences struggle.
One woman is considering ending things with her boyfriend, who makes sufficiently less money than her and has a bitter attitude about it.
She’s 25, and her boyfriend is 29. They’ve been getting more serious and have started talking about moving in together someday. While they generally get along, the difference in money they earn is beginning to get to them.
“Financials have never been something that was really important to me, [but] I’ve always earned a decent wage and pride myself on being a hard worker,” she said.
“He is a teacher [and] I work in the tech industry, so I have some room for growth in terms of potential earning. It never occurred to me the difference in our earnings until he made it an issue.”
Recently, she earned a great promotion that bumped her annual salary up to $80,000. For a while, her boyfriend has been making $48,000. When she told him about her raise, instead of being excited for her, he became mean.
Her boyfriend made a comment about how she didn’t “deserve” that salary for working a “cushy work-from-home job” while he was working a job that changed lives and never got a raise.
Her boyfriend’s comments disturbed her, as she couldn’t imagine how he’d react to any other advances she made in her career if he was now reacting this way.
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