I think neither of them is harder, it's all about experience. Frontent frameworks tend to change a lot. Backend technology is a little bit more long-lived but you have to learn more about things like webservices, architecture and so on.
I'd say income is based on a few facts like
1) Country
2) Freelancer or employee
3) Industry
4) Just coding or business focused
5) Technology
...
If you want to earn good money move to the US or Switzerland, get in a high paying niche like ABAP and work as a freelancer for a big company with deep pockets.
Don't work as a employed PHP developer for a startup in India or someting like that.