Sharing money and working hours

[incomeout]

We have lived together for 10 years and have two children but are not married. We have a mortgage and currently split all bills equally on a 50/50 split.

Earnings are broadly similar in terms of take home pay - I generally bring home up to £100 more per month, but this is offset by his annual bonus.

I work part time for my equivalent pay and he works full time.

It's a great set up all fine and dandy.

He would like to reduce his hours which would obviously reduce his take home pay.

Question - should we continue as above with 50/50 split of the bills or should I then pay more bills as I will be earning more? (With us both then working approximately the same amount of hours)

Think that should be enough info for you all to make a broad judgement and I'm very interested to know your stance so I can decide whether it is reasonable of me to encourage his reduction in hours and financial support to do so.

Thanks

Actually all those questions are relevant because as a family, long term family financial health should be a joint priority.
Sometimes it’s not about “fair” it’s about getting through this phase and relaxing in later years.
So if you plan on being with this fellow long term, paying off the mortgage should be a priority not reducing what either one of you puts in the pot.
if he needs to work less, you need to maintain or up your game IF your a team.

You work less hours but still pay 50% of the bills and pick up the childcare duties, you earn more but it all becomes equal when he throws in his bonus, correct?
If he wants to reduce his hours I wouldn't fund it.
He can choose to drop a day but he still needs to pay his way.
What would happen if he didn't live with you, he'd still have to pay his bills.
If he really wants to ease off working full time and I don't blame him he'll just have to have less personal spends / pocket money.

In a long term relationship like this, assuming good-will on both sides (no issues in the relationship), then there are two options:
One is to both pay proportional to earnings, the other is to adjust contributions so that you both end up with the same about of 'personal spending' money.

The first sounds fair, but actually can cause problems as even when paying proportionally one person ends up with more money left over.

In a stable relationship I favour the second: same spending money each, but also crucially same 'time-off' each. If one works part time but does more housework/childcare, and the other works longer hours, that is fine, as long as 'time-off' or 'personal-time' is equal.

I think if you are working similar hours and contributing the same at home you should pay proportionately.