Pocket money for a 13 year old in New Zealand
A teenager. Thirteen is where a pocket wage starts to be compared to what friends earn, and it holds up.
A 13 year old in New Zealand earns
$15.57an hour
About $66.17 a week if they do 4¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 65% 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 13 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.
Thirteen year olds can do adult jobs at adult quality: the full weekly clean, all the family washing, cooking most nights if they want the hours, and skilled outdoor work like pressure washing and weeding beds. Ninety-minute jobs are fine. In some countries they can also start light paid work outside the home at this age, usually with no minimum wage protection, which makes the pocket wage a useful yardstick: is that job paying less than the rate at home?
This is also the age to start talking about where the rate comes from. Show them the junior wage table for your country. A thirteen year old who knows what a fifteen year old legally earns is already planning.
The payslip at 13
Jobs, pay, interest, locked savings, and the balance split between spendable and locked. Show the year-to-date total: thirteen year olds are impressed by big numbers they earned.
The Jobs Board at age 13, $15.57 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Do the full weekly clean | 1 hr 30 min | $23.36 |
| Do all the family washing | 1 hr | $15.57 |
| Cook dinner for the week's busiest night | 45 min | $11.68 |
| Weed and tidy the garden beds | 1 hr | $15.57 |
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 13 year olds.
How much should a thirteen year old get paid for chores?
The rate on this page, for about four and a half hours of jobs a week. It is scaled from the country's minimum wage, so it rises with the law and with every birthday.
Can a thirteen year old work outside the home?
In some countries, light work like a paper round is allowed from thirteen, often with no minimum wage attached. Compare what it pays to their pocket wage before they take it.
Should teenagers be paid for chores at all?
Family Duties, no. The Jobs Board, yes: it is real work, priced by the time it should take, and it is the apprenticeship for the paid job that is one or two years away.
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.