Pocket money for a 10 year old in Ireland
Double digits. At ten the pocket wage has roughly doubled since five, and they know it.
A 10 year old in Ireland earns
€6.19an hour
About €20.12 a week if they do 3¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 43.7% of the minimum wage in Ireland.
Worked out from Workplace Relations Commission — National Minimum Wage, rates from 1 January 2026.
The rate at every age in Ireland.
Pocket Wage is a straight line, one step every birthday, until it meets the real minimum wage. Here's the whole ladder in Ireland.
- Pocket wage, paid by you
- Real minimum wage, paid by a boss
At 16, the legal minimum in Ireland is €9.91 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 10 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.
Ten year olds can mow a small lawn with supervision, cook a simple dinner, clean the whole bathroom and wash windows. Forty-five-minute jobs are realistic on a weekend. They are also old enough to keep their own record of jobs done and compare it to the payslip, which is the beginning of financial literacy nobody has to teach.
This is the age to talk about the ladder itself: show them the rate at eleven, twelve, thirteen. A ten year old who can see next year's pay rise coming has a reason to stick with the system through the boring weeks.
The payslip at 10
Jobs, pay, interest, balance. Ten is where a basic income line, if you use one, should be shown separately from earned wages so the difference is plain.
The Jobs Board at age 10, €6.19 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Mow the lawn | 45 min | €4.64 |
| Cook a simple dinner | 40 min | €4.13 |
| Clean the whole bathroom | 30 min | €3.10 |
| Wash the windows | 30 min | €3.10 |
Example jobs and times. Family Duties, like clearing your own plate, are unpaid: belonging isn't billable.
How junior wages work in Ireland.
Ireland's national minimum wage is set by the government each January on the advice of the Low Pay Commission. Workers under 18 are entitled to 70% of the adult rate, 18 year olds to 80%, and 19 year olds to 90%, with the full rate at 20.
Pocket Wage anchors on the under-18 rate at sixteen and draws a straight line back to zero. From sixteen the site shows the real statutory rates. When the rate changes each January, every age on this site moves with it.
Children can do light work from 14 during school holidays and from 15 in term time, with limits on hours. The under-18 minimum wage applies to any employed young person.
Source: Workplace Relations Commission — National Minimum Wage, rates from 1 January 2026.
Questions parents ask about 10 year olds.
How much pocket money should a ten year old get?
The old rule of a dollar per year of age would give ten a week for nothing. A pocket wage at the rate for a ten year old, for about three hours of jobs a week, comes to the figure on this page, and it is earned.
Should a ten year old get pocket money without doing chores?
Family Duties are unpaid and expected. If you want a safety net, Pocket Wage supports a basic income line on the payslip, marked as not earned, so the kid sees the two kinds of money side by side.
What is a fair hourly rate for a ten year old?
The rate on this page: the country's minimum wage, scaled to age ten by the same straight line the law draws for junior workers. It is not a number anyone made up.
What is the minimum wage for a 16 year old in Ireland?
70% of the adult national minimum wage, the rate for anyone under 18. It is shown on our 16 year old page from the official source, and it is the anchor for every younger age here.
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.