Allowance for a 13 year old in Canada
A teenager. Thirteen is where a pocket wage starts to be compared to what friends earn, and it holds up.
A 13 year old in Canada earns
$15.41an hour
About $65.49 a week if they do 4¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 87.6% of the minimum wage in Canada.
Worked out from Government of Canada — Minimum Wage Database, rates from October 1, 2025.
The rate at every age in Canada.
Pocket Wage is a straight line, one step every birthday, until it meets the real minimum wage. Here's the whole ladder in Canada.
- Pocket wage, paid by you
- Real minimum wage, paid by a boss
At 14, the legal minimum in Canada is $16.60 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 13 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.
Thirteen year olds can do adult jobs at adult quality: the full weekly clean, all the family washing, cooking most nights if they want the hours, and skilled outdoor work like pressure washing and weeding beds. Ninety-minute jobs are fine. In some countries they can also start light paid work outside the home at this age, usually with no minimum wage protection, which makes the pocket wage a useful yardstick: is that job paying less than the rate at home?
This is also the age to start talking about where the rate comes from. Show them the junior wage table for your country. A thirteen year old who knows what a fifteen year old legally earns is already planning.
The payslip at 13
Jobs, pay, interest, locked savings, and the balance split between spendable and locked. Show the year-to-date total: thirteen year olds are impressed by big numbers they earned.
The Jobs Board at age 13, $15.41 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Do the full weekly clean | 1 hr 30 min | $23.12 |
| Do all the family washing | 1 hr | $15.41 |
| Cook dinner for the week's busiest night | 45 min | $11.56 |
| Weed and tidy the garden beds | 1 hr | $15.41 |
Example jobs and times. Family Duties, like clearing your own plate, are unpaid: belonging isn't billable.
How junior wages work in Canada.
Canada's minimum wage is set by each province and territory, not nationally, and most of them index it to inflation once a year. There is generally no youth rate: a fourteen year old with a job is owed the same minimum wage as an adult, with the exception of Ontario's and Alberta's student rates for under-18s working part time.
Pocket Wage anchors on the province's minimum wage at fourteen, the youngest age most provinces allow ordinary work, and draws a straight line back to zero. Choose your province at the top: a kid in Nunavut and a kid in Alberta are on different ladders.
Most provinces allow ordinary work from 14, some from 12 with consent for light work. The minimum wage has no lower age limit, so a working 14 year old is owed the rate shown.
Source: Government of Canada — Minimum Wage Database, rates from October 1, 2025.
By province or territory
The rate for an 8 year old, worked out from each one's own minimum wage.
- Alberta$7.43
- British Columbia$10.43
- Manitoba$9.14
- New Brunswick$9.09
- Newfoundland and Labrador$9.34
- Northwest Territories$9.83
- Nova Scotia$9.57
- Nunavut$11.53
- Ontario$9.49
- Prince Edward Island$9.71
- Quebec$9.49
- Saskatchewan$8.77
- Yukon$10.58
Questions parents ask about 13 year olds.
How much should a thirteen year old get paid for chores?
The rate on this page, for about four and a half hours of jobs a week. It is scaled from the country's minimum wage, so it rises with the law and with every birthday.
Can a thirteen year old work outside the home?
In some countries, light work like a paper round is allowed from thirteen, often with no minimum wage attached. Compare what it pays to their pocket wage before they take it.
Should teenagers be paid for chores at all?
Family Duties, no. The Jobs Board, yes: it is real work, priced by the time it should take, and it is the apprenticeship for the paid job that is one or two years away.
How much allowance should a kid get in Canada?
The traditional rule is a dollar a week per year of age, given for nothing. Pocket Wage replaces it with a rate: your province's minimum wage, scaled to your kid's age, paid for jobs actually done.
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.