Pay Day

My wife and had a financial meeting this morning, as we often do on the morning after our paychecks get direct deposited into the checking account. Usually it's a quick assessment of what little we have to show for our hard work after the dust clears from the bills feeding frenzy.

Today was no different.

However, we did a quick check of our gross income to make sure that we were on track with our tithe amount for church. And that's when it hit me.

My gross pay for the year (with numerous extra shifts and overtime) was just over half of my wife's gross pay to date. Right at 55%. My wife doesn't often work extra shifts (although she has occasionally.)

Let me qualify this observation:

a.) She has been at her job for 9 years, I for less than 1 year.

b.) She works a contracted weekend plan that pays her an extra differential for working every weekend.

Ok, so she's had a significant head start, and she gets compensated for forking over our social life essentially.

But twice as much? Really??

She works for a nationally recognized non-profit children's hospital. It is a large hospital--over 300 beds, and expanding even as we speak. It is a designated trauma center. She works on a critical care unit at the highest level of care provided by the hospital to its patients.

I work for a nationally recognized non-profit hospital. It is a large hospital--over 1000 beds, and expanding even as we speak. We are designated a Level 1 trauma center. I work on a critical care unit at the highest level of care provided by the hospital to its patients.

New grad nurses at her hospital make on average at least $10,000 more per year than new grads at my hospital.

My wife gets paid extra for working in critical care. I get paid the same as any other nurse in the hospital--day surgery to med-surg to L&D. We all get paid the same.

I recently remember working a weekend (extra diff), night (extra diff), holiday (time & a half), overtime (time & a half) shift. After adding up all my diffs and overtime, my hourly pay was only slightly more than my wife's base pay.

I don't mind that my wife makes more than me, at least not consciously. In fact I'm quite thankful as her job is the only way we've survived financially through my job failures and extra degrees. But when I think about how hard I work and the razor edge I routinely walk with my patient's lives and my license, it is a little disheartening to see the disparity. I don't think my wife works any less hard than I do, but I don't think she works any harder either.

Because of my past degrees, I have a crippling amount of student loan debt. Two of my three loan payments were more than this 2 weeks paycheck, and the third loan payment will be another 1/3 of my next paycheck. Lucky for me, the end of those payments is in sight--only 29 1/2 years from now.

I guess like many, I'm lucky to have a spouse willing to lump her paychecks into the joint checking account to provide for her family.

So sweetie, "Thank you," for paying my car payment this month, and my insurance, groceries, and fuel. Oh and "Thanks" for providing me a place to live.

I'll do my best to repay you when I get my earning potential soul back from the student loan companies.

Either that or when my life insurance comes through.