Pocket money for a 12 year old in Australia
Twelve is when the payslip grows up: the first deduction appears, and the rate is now real money by any measure.
A 12 year old in Australia earns
$7.78an hour
About $31.12 a week if they do 4 hours of paid jobs. That's 29.4% of the minimum wage in Australia.
Worked out from Fair Work Ombudsman — Annual Wage Review 2026, rates from 1 July 2026.
The rate at every age in Australia.
Pocket Wage is a straight line, one step every birthday, until it meets the real minimum wage. Here's the whole ladder in Australia.
- Pocket wage, paid by you
- Real minimum wage, paid by a boss
At 15, the legal minimum in Australia is $9.73 an hour. Pocket Wage draws a straight line from there back to zero, and a kid's age picks the spot on it.
What a 12 year old can do, and what it pays.
Every paid job has a standard time: how long it should take, not how long it did. Dawdle and you earn less a minute. Get good at it and you earn more. There's no timer to game and no price to haggle.
Twelve year olds can run most household jobs end to end: the weekly shop with a list, dinner two nights a week, the lawn and edges, the whole bathroom and kitchen clean. Hour-long jobs on a weekend are normal. They are also capable of managing a small budget, which is why this is the year the locked savings slice starts.
Set the slice together. Ten percent of each payslip, locked until a date they choose, at an interest rate you set. The first time the locked balance passes what they have in their pocket is a moment most families remember.
The payslip at 12
Jobs, pay, interest, a locked savings deduction, and the balance in two parts: spendable and locked. Twelve is the first payslip that looks like a payslip.
The Jobs Board at age 12, $7.78 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Do the weekly shop from a list | 1 hr | $7.78 |
| Cook dinner two nights a week | 45 min | $5.84 |
| Mow the lawn and do the edges | 1 hr | $7.78 |
| Deep clean the kitchen | 40 min | $5.19 |
Example jobs and times. Family Duties, like clearing your own plate, are unpaid: belonging isn't billable.
How junior wages work in Australia.
Australia's national minimum wage is set every year by the Fair Work Commission and takes effect on 1 July. For workers under 21 the law publishes junior rates as a percentage of the adult wage: 36.8% under 16, rising each birthday to the full rate at 21. A fifteen year old with a casual job is legally owed the under-16 rate, and it goes up on their sixteenth birthday whether or not their boss remembers.
Pocket Wage anchors on that under-16 rate and draws a straight line back to zero, so every age from five to fifteen sits on the same ramp the law uses from fifteen to twenty-one. From sixteen the site shows the real junior rate. When the Commission announces a new wage each June, every rate on this site changes on 1 July, and so does every kid's pocket wage: Pay-Rise Day for the whole country.
The age a child can legally work varies by state, usually 13 to 15, with lighter rules for things like delivery rounds. The junior minimum wage applies to anyone employed, whatever their age.
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman — Annual Wage Review 2026, rates from 1 July 2026.
Questions parents ask about 12 year olds.
How much pocket money should a twelve year old get?
Enough that a deduction means something. At the rate for a twelve year old and about four hours of jobs a week, the weekly figure on this page is where to start, with a slice of it locked away.
Why lock part of their money away?
Because at twelve they can understand delayed reward, and a locked balance that grows with interest teaches saving better than any lecture. They chose the date; the money is still theirs.
What jobs are worth paying a twelve year old for?
Anything you would otherwise do yourself: the shop, dinner, the lawn, a proper clean. Price each by the time it should take at their rate, and let them beat it.
What is the average pocket money in Australia?
Surveys by Australian banks and kids' money apps typically find a few dollars a week at primary-school age, rising to ten or fifteen for teenagers, mostly given for nothing. A pocket wage is usually more, and all of it is earned.
Every birthday is a pay rise.
The app runs the whole thing: the Jobs Board, the standard times, a sacred weekly payday with a payslip, and Pay-Rise Day on every birthday. No cards, no stored money. The parent is the bank.