Pocket money for an 11 year old in New Zealand
Eleven is the last year before the payslip starts to grow up, and the jobs are now genuinely useful to the household.
An 11 year old in New Zealand earns
$13.17an hour
About $46.10 a week if they do 3½ hours of paid jobs. That's 55% 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 an 11 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.
Eleven year olds can do a full load of washing from basket to wardrobe, cook dinner for the family with a recipe, clean the kitchen after it, and do the weekly vacuum and mop. An hour of work in a block is fine on a weekend. Many can also babysit a younger sibling for short periods with a parent in the house, which is a real job with a real standard time.
Talk about next year now: at twelve the payslip gets a locked savings line. Explaining it a year early turns it into a milestone rather than a deduction.
The payslip at 11
Jobs, pay, interest, balance, and a preview of the locked savings line that starts at twelve. Show it as zero this year so the change is not a surprise.
The Jobs Board at age 11, $13.17 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Do a full load of washing, basket to wardrobe | 40 min | $8.78 |
| Cook dinner for the family | 45 min | $9.88 |
| Clean the kitchen after dinner | 20 min | $4.39 |
| Vacuum and mop the floors | 40 min | $8.78 |
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 11 year olds.
How much should an eleven year old earn from chores?
At the hourly rate for an eleven year old, for around three and a half hours a week, the weekly figure is on this page. What they earn depends on the hours, and the hours are the family's dial.
Can an eleven year old have a paid job outside the home?
In most countries not yet, apart from things like paper rounds where local rules allow. The pocket wage is the only wage they can earn, which is why it is worth getting right.
What is a locked savings slice?
A share of each payslip, from about twelve, that goes into savings they cannot spend until a date you both agree. It is the family version of a term deposit and it starts next year.
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.