I made more than my first husband for a short time. But we were young and struggling so neither of us thought much of it. over the years it evened out to that we both made almost exactly the same amount of money. that was a good thing when we decided to divorce! we split everything in half… he took the dining room furniture and i took the living room stuff. He grabbed half of all the dishes and linenes and took the extra bedroom set. We had a week on week off parenting plan for years. We just always saw each other as equals in the relationship so we saw it that way in the divorce.

A young woman who works for our company right now just had her husband get laid off. he’s in residential construction and had a very good job running big condo builds. now she makes the money and he cannot handle it. he is trying to do freelance work and gets quite a bit. he’s a likeable job. every week he compares what he made to what she makes and gets real depressed and upset when his is less…

Your question reminded me of scene from my childhood.  My mom went "back to work" (she’d worked while my father was overseas during WWII and immediately became a homemaker when he returned) when I was 13. She was so excited.

My siblings and I asked her, "What if you make more money than Dad?" (Didn’t realize what a ludicrous question that was in 1963.)

She smiled and said, "Ask your father." 

We ran to him in another part of the house and posed the question.  He said — and it set such a positive tone for my life: "I’ll quit my job and stay home!"

Yes and yes and not in a good way.