Internet Drags Man Who Thinks He Shouldn’t Do Chores Because He Earns More Than His Girlfriend

One of the biggest things that couples argue over in a relationship is money according to Investopedia, calling the process of managing finances a chore: "Managing your finances is a chore. Like all the chores couples need to complete (everything from cutting the grass and taking out the trash, washing the dishes, and cleaning the bathroom), the division of labor is rarely 50/50."

In the case of this Redditor and their girlfriend, it appears that both the chore of handling money, along with the actual distribution of household chores, has become a point of contention in their relationship.

User @lsmold asked members of the "Am I the a**hole" community if they were in the wrong for expecting their girlfriend to perform the bulk of household duties around their place as he pays more in monthly rent than she does.

He begins his post by stating that he works for a "prominent" company and, as a result, earns significantly more money than his girlfriend.

His girlfriend used to hold a higher-paying position, but she ultimately opted to leave the job because it was "a very toxic work environment with a boss who was sexist and homophobic." This made her hate her job and she instead took up employment at another place that paid less.

He goes on to say that although she's earning less money, her job is less stressful so when she comes back home from work she typically isn't as depleted as he is. OP said that he will occasionally wash the dishes and put laundry away, while she will fold them, but she is also the only person who cleans the bathroom and kitchen and sweeps the floors.

He said that the inequity in chore duties occurred for about eight months since they moved into their new place together from out of state, and the first time she brought up the lack of chores help from him was when she asked if he could vacuum the living room. He couldn't find the vacuum cleaner and she suggested that if he took more initiative in cleaning up the house he'd probably have a better idea of where everything was located.

He went on to say that he believes since he pays more in rent and her job isn't as high-stress as his is, that it's only fair that she does more household chores. In further edits, he revealed that he pays about 60% of the rent and they technically work the same number of hours at their respective vocations.

Many folks in the comments section said that he was in the wrong and that this kind of argument is typically found in this particular subreddit. User @inmyfeelings2020 wrote: "YTA. This argument comes up in every damn relationship I swear...She works the same amount of hours as you AND does basically ALL of the cleaning? Does she do the cooking too? She is looking for help. Literally. That's it. Maybe the amount of cleaning she has done over the past 8 months has her BURNT OUT. Did you ever think of that??"

Others said that even if he wanted to be fair/according to his contributions than he should've at least contributed to 40% of the chores work as it wasn't like he was paying a higher percentage of the rent to justify the work she was putting into maintaining the household.

OP did update his post to indicate that he understands how his way of thinking was wrong and that he expressed remorse he put his girlfriend in this position for the last 8 months. He even replied to folks who defended him in the comments section stating that while he appreciated their words of support, he entirely believes that he was in the wrong.

What do you think? Is him paying 10% more in rent for their apartment a good trade-off for his girlfriend to perform a disproportionately larger amount of the household work? Or is he entirely in the wrong like a bunch of Redditors say he is?