Pocket money for an 8 year old in Australia
Eight is the sweet spot. Old enough to do a proper job unsupervised, young enough to think a vacuum cleaner is exciting.
An 8 year old in Australia earns
$5.19an hour
About $12.98 a week if they do 2½ hours of paid jobs. That's 19.6% 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 an 8 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.
An eight year old can vacuum the living areas, empty every bin in the house, hang out a load of washing and put the groceries away. Twenty-minute jobs are realistic. They are also old enough to read their own payslip and check your arithmetic, which you should encourage.
The big idea to land at eight is the difference between Family Duties and the Jobs Board. Clearing your plate is being part of the family. Vacuuming the lounge is a job, and jobs pay. Eight year olds find this distinction fair, which is more than most adults manage.
The payslip at 8
Jobs, pay and balance, and an optional line for interest if the parent is playing the bank. Eight is a good age to see money make money.
The Jobs Board at age 8, $5.19 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Vacuum the living areas | 20 min | $1.73 |
| Empty every bin in the house | 10 min | $0.87 |
| Hang out a load of washing | 15 min | $1.30 |
| Put the groceries away | 15 min | $1.30 |
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 8 year olds.
How much pocket money should an eight year old get a week?
With a pocket wage the question changes: how many hours of paid jobs, at the rate for their age? About two and a half hours a week is a sensible amount at eight. The weekly figure on this page is what that comes to.
What jobs can an eight year old do?
Anything with a clear finish that takes up to about twenty minutes: vacuuming, bins, hanging washing, putting shopping away. The Jobs Board above prices each at their rate.
Should I pay interest on their savings?
It is a good age to start. Set a rate, pay it on payday, and let them watch the line on the payslip. Pocket Wage lets a parent be the bank without any real bank involved.
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.