Pocket money for a 7 year old in New Zealand
Seven is the age of systems. A seven year old will run a job the same way every time if you show them once.
A 7 year old in New Zealand earns
$8.38an hour
About $18.86 a week if they do 2¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 35% 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 7 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.
Jobs with a routine suit this age: unload the dishwasher, feed and water the dog, wipe the bathroom bench. Fifteen minutes is now fine. Seven year olds are also old enough to be shown the standard time and told why it exists: the job pays for how long it should take, not how long it took, so dawdling costs them and getting good pays them.
Expect the first negotiation around now. The answer is that the rate is not up for discussion, because it comes from the law, not from you. That sentence does more parenting than any chart.
The payslip at 7
Jobs, pay, balance. If they want to save for something, write it on the payslip so they see the gap close each week.
The Jobs Board at age 7, $8.38 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Unload the dishwasher | 10 min | $1.40 |
| Feed and water the dog | 10 min | $1.40 |
| Wipe the bathroom bench | 10 min | $1.40 |
| Fold the tea towels | 15 min | $2.10 |
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 7 year olds.
My seven year old wants more money for the same job. What do I say?
That the rate is set by their age and the country's minimum wage, and it goes up on their birthday. Haggling is what pocket money teaches; a pocket wage removes the haggle.
How much pocket money does the average seven year old get?
Surveys in most countries put it at a few dollars or pounds a week, given for nothing. A pocket wage is usually more than that, and every cent of it is earned.
What if they refuse to do the jobs?
Then there is no pay that week, and the rate does not change. Payday still happens; it just shows zero. Never dock money for behaviour: the wage is for work, and only for work.
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.