Pocket money for a 16 year old in Ireland
At sixteen the law sets the rate in most of the countries here. The pocket wage is simply the real junior wage, paid at home.
A 16 year old in Ireland earns
€9.91an hour
About €49.55 a week if they do 5 hours of paid jobs. That's the real legal minimum for their age. From here the law sets the rate, not us.
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 16 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.
Sixteen year olds can work legally almost everywhere, and the minimum wage that applies to them is the one Pocket Wage uses. That is the whole design: the family rate and the market rate have met, and a first job is a change of employer, not a change of world. Jobs at home are now priced exactly as an employer would price them.
If they have a job outside the house, the Jobs Board keeps going for the jobs they still do at home. If they do not, the pocket wage is a fair, legal-rate wage for real work, and the payslip they have been reading since twelve is the one they will recognise on day one of employment.
The payslip at 16
Identical to a real payslip. If you have been running Pocket Wage since they were small, this is the eleventh pay rise and the five hundredth payday or so. Graduation is next.
The Jobs Board at age 16, €9.91 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Run the whole house for a weekend | 6 hr | €59.46 |
| Full garden maintenance | 2 hr | €19.82 |
| Wash, vacuum and detail the car | 1 hr 30 min | €14.87 |
| Babysit younger siblings for an evening | 3 hr | €29.73 |
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 16 year olds.
Should a sixteen year old still get pocket money?
Not pocket money. A wage for work at home, at the same rate the law says an employer must pay them. Family Duties stay unpaid, as they always were.
What is the minimum wage for a sixteen year old?
The rate on this page, from the official source linked below. It is the legal junior rate for this country, not a Pocket Wage estimate.
What happens when they get a job?
Graduation. The rate at home and the rate at work are the same number, so the first payslip from a boss looks exactly like the one from home. That was the point of every birthday since five.
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.