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The reverse is that the less successful person is punished for not being successful, not earning as much, or for choosing a career for altruistic reasons instead of strictly monetary ones. We used to do a 50/50 split on expenses before we were married, and I never had money of my own after bills were paid. I had to completely cut out a lot of "feminine" expenses--a nice outfit for a special occasion, makeup, haircuts, etc., because unless he agreed to purchase those things for me, I didn't have money for them. I didn't have money for going out with friends. I could only go out if he was going out too. Now, I have money to go out with friends, regardless of whether he comes along or not. Ultimately, it's a savings for him too--he doesn't have to spend money on me the way he used to, and he feels a lot better about that.
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Surprise, surprise.. same boat as snowy. We did the 50/50 split for a while, but with me making nearly twice what she does (I'm an Engineer, she works in cancer research) it simply wasn't fair. Las: I understand that you could see it as "punishment" that you have to pay more because you earn more. But because it's a percentage, you still ultimately have more to play with still, it's just closer. I don't feel like I should "punish" someone I love for choosing a career they love instead of a career that makes the same as mine.
Let's say you pull in 2k a week and she pulls in 1k. Your mortgage is 1.5k and all other bills are totally ignored.
If you split it 50/50, you each pay 750. She's got 250 and you've got 1250. If you want to go on a trip to Spain, it's going to take a long ass time for you both to save up, and it's going to mean that if you split everything else 50/50, restaurants, movies, etc. she's going to end up running completely out of money before you. You'll end up footing the bill anyway if you want to keep bringing her along.
If you split it income-wise, you make 2/3 of the shared income, so 66%. She makes 1/3, so 33%. You pay 1000/ she pays 500. Seems rude that you pay more, right? Well, now you've got 1000 to play with and she's got 500 to play with. To me, that's plenty and still more "fair" than 1250/250 would be. You can play together for longer.
It was more essential in my relationship because I've got a higher income but also a higher expectation. So it'd be unreasonable to say I want 40 MBPs internet but expect her to pay 50% of it on her lesser salary.
Eh, that's just my girlfriend and I's take on it.. six years in and it wasn't until year 5.5 that we went from 50/50 to percentage based and I'm happier with the latter, despite individually contributing more.