Allowance for a 7 year old in Canada
Seven is the age of systems. A seven year old will run a job the same way every time if you show them once.
A 7 year old in Canada earns
$8.30an hour
About $18.68 a week if they do 2¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 47.2% 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 7 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.
Jobs with a routine suit this age: unload the dishwasher, feed and water the dog, wipe the bathroom bench. Fifteen minutes is now fine. Seven year olds are also old enough to be shown the standard time and told why it exists: the job pays for how long it should take, not how long it took, so dawdling costs them and getting good pays them.
Expect the first negotiation around now. The answer is that the rate is not up for discussion, because it comes from the law, not from you. That sentence does more parenting than any chart.
The payslip at 7
Jobs, pay, balance. If they want to save for something, write it on the payslip so they see the gap close each week.
The Jobs Board at age 7, $8.30 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Unload the dishwasher | 10 min | $1.38 |
| Feed and water the dog | 10 min | $1.38 |
| Wipe the bathroom bench | 10 min | $1.38 |
| Fold the tea towels | 15 min | $2.08 |
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 7 year olds.
My seven year old wants more money for the same job. What do I say?
That the rate is set by their age and the country's minimum wage, and it goes up on their birthday. Haggling is what pocket money teaches; a pocket wage removes the haggle.
How much pocket money does the average seven year old get?
Surveys in most countries put it at a few dollars or pounds a week, given for nothing. A pocket wage is usually more than that, and every cent of it is earned.
What if they refuse to do the jobs?
Then there is no pay that week, and the rate does not change. Payday still happens; it just shows zero. Never dock money for behaviour: the wage is for work, and only for work.
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.