Pocket money for a 15 year old in Australia
Fifteen is where the family rate meets the real one in much of the world. Every birthday since five has been leading here.
A 15 year old in Australia earns
$9.73an hour
About $48.65 a week if they do 5 hours of paid jobs. That's the real legal minimum for their age. From here the law sets the rate, not us.
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 15 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.
A fifteen year old can do any job in the house at the standard an adult would, and in Australia and New Zealand is now owed a real junior wage by any employer. The pocket wage at fifteen is that wage, or the last step below it, depending on the country. Whatever they do at home should be priced the same way a boss would price it: by the hour, at the legal rate, for the time it should take.
Use this year to make the payslip look exactly like the one they will get from a first employer: gross pay, deductions, net, year to date. When the first real payslip arrives, it should be boring.
The payslip at 15
A complete payslip: gross, interest, locked savings, household tax, net, year to date. The same shape as a real one, because a real one is next.
The Jobs Board at age 15, $9.73 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Run the whole house for a day while parents are out | 3 hr | $29.19 |
| Full garden maintenance | 2 hr | $19.46 |
| Wash, vacuum and detail the car | 1 hr 30 min | $14.60 |
| Cook and clean up dinner all week | 4 hr | $38.92 |
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 15 year olds.
How much should a fifteen year old earn at home?
The rate on this page, which in several countries is the actual legal minimum for their age. For about five hours a week of jobs, the weekly figure is what a first casual job would pay for the same hours.
Should they get a real job instead?
Both. A first job is a promotion from the Jobs Board, not a replacement for it. If they take one, keep the pocket wage running for the jobs at home they still do.
What is the Allowance Cliff?
The jump from flat pocket money to hours, rates and a payslip, all in the same week a kid starts work. A pocket wage replaces the cliff with a staircase, one step a birthday, and fifteen is near the top.
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.