Allowance for a 9 year old in Canada
At nine the jobs start to look like the ones you do, and the rate has climbed enough to be worth planning around.
A 9 year old in Canada earns
$10.67an hour
About $32.01 a week if they do 3 hours of paid jobs. That's 60.6% 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 9 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.
Nine year olds can wash the car, clean the bathroom mirror and sink, cook a simple breakfast for the family, and rake the leaves. Half-hour jobs are fine. They are also old enough for the timer game: race the standard time and see the effective hourly rate go up when they beat it. That is the first time most kids understand what efficiency means.
Watch for the moment they ask what a job is worth before agreeing to do it. That is not greed. It is exactly what a working adult does, and it means the model is working.
The payslip at 9
Jobs, pay, interest if you pay it, balance. Nine year olds can be shown last week's payslip next to this one and asked what changed.
The Jobs Board at age 9, $10.67 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Wash the car | 30 min | $5.34 |
| Clean the bathroom mirror and sink | 15 min | $2.67 |
| Make breakfast for the family | 20 min | $3.56 |
| Rake the leaves | 30 min | $5.34 |
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 9 year olds.
Is nine old enough to earn by the hour?
Yes. The rate is scaled to their age, so an hour of a nine year old's work pays less than an hour of a fifteen year old's. That is how junior wages work in the real economy too.
How do I stop them rushing the job badly?
A job is not done until it is done properly, and it does not pay until it is done. Standard time rewards speed, but the parent still signs it off.
Can they propose their own jobs?
They should. A kid who spots that the garage needs sweeping and asks what it pays is doing exactly what the system is for. You set the standard time; it joins the board.
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.