Pocket money for a 10 year old in New Zealand
Double digits. At ten the pocket wage has roughly doubled since five, and they know it.
A 10 year old in New Zealand earns
$11.98an hour
About $38.94 a week if they do 3¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 50% of the minimum wage in New Zealand.
Worked out from Employment New Zealand — Minimum wage rates and types, rates from 1 April 2026.
The rate at every age in New Zealand.
Pocket Wage is a straight line, one step every birthday, until it meets the real minimum wage. Here's the whole ladder in New Zealand.
- Pocket wage, paid by you
- Real minimum wage, paid by a boss
At 16, the legal minimum in New Zealand is $19.16 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, $11.98 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Mow the lawn | 45 min | $8.99 |
| Cook a simple dinner | 40 min | $7.99 |
| Clean the whole bathroom | 30 min | $5.99 |
| Wash the windows | 30 min | $5.99 |
Example jobs and times. Family Duties, like clearing your own plate, are unpaid: belonging isn't billable.
How junior wages work in New Zealand.
New Zealand sets its minimum wage every 1 April. There is no youth rate for most workers: from sixteen, a young person on the adult minimum wage is owed the full adult rate, unless they are on the starting-out rate, which is 80% of the adult wage for their first six months.
Pocket Wage anchors on the starting-out rate at sixteen, because that is what a sixteen year old's first job legally pays, and draws a straight line back to zero. From sixteen the site shows the real rates.
There is no general minimum working age in New Zealand, but children under 16 cannot work during school hours and there are safety limits. The minimum wage applies from 16.
Source: Employment New Zealand — Minimum wage rates and types, rates from 1 April 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 New Zealand?
The starting-out rate, 80% of the adult minimum, for the first six months of a job, then the adult rate. Our 16 year old page shows the official figures.
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.