Pocket money for a 14 year old in the United Kingdom
Fourteen is a year from the real economy in most countries, and the payslip should say so.
A 14 year old in the United Kingdom earns
£7.00an hour
About £33.25 a week if they do 4¾ hours of paid jobs. That's 55.1% of the minimum wage in the United Kingdom.
Worked out from GOV.UK — National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, rates from 1 April 2026.
The rate at every age in the United Kingdom.
Pocket Wage is a straight line, one step every birthday, until it meets the real minimum wage. Here's the whole ladder in the United Kingdom.
- Pocket wage, paid by you
- Real minimum wage, paid by a boss
At 16, the legal minimum in the United Kingdom is £8.00 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 14 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.
At fourteen the jobs can be anything an adult does around the house, priced at the rate for a fourteen year old. Longer projects suit them: clearing out the garage, painting a fence, a deep clean of a whole floor. Two-hour jobs on a weekend, with a standard time set in advance, work well. In the United States and Canada this is already legal working age, and the pocket wage is the real minimum wage.
This is the year the household tax starts: a small slice of each payslip toward a family goal that everyone can see. Fourteen year olds understand tax the moment they see what it is buying.
The payslip at 14
Jobs, pay, interest, locked savings, household tax, and the balance. This is a full payslip: gross, deductions, net. By fourteen they can read every line and explain it back.
The Jobs Board at age 14, £7.00 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Clear out and sweep the garage | 2 hr | £14.00 |
| Paint a fence or a wall | 2 hr | £14.00 |
| Deep clean one whole floor of the house | 1 hr 30 min | £10.50 |
| Cook a full dinner and clean up | 1 hr | £7.00 |
Example jobs and times. Family Duties, like clearing your own plate, are unpaid: belonging isn't billable.
How junior wages work in the United Kingdom.
The UK has three legal rates: the National Living Wage for 21 and over, a rate for 18 to 20 year olds, and a rate for 16 and 17 year olds. They change every 1 April. The minimum wage applies from school leaving age, so a sixteen year old with a Saturday job is legally owed the 16 to 17 rate.
Pocket Wage anchors on the 16 to 17 rate and draws a straight line back to zero. At current rates that works out to almost exactly fifty pence per year of age: a ten year old earns five pounds an hour, a twelve year old six. Every April the line is redrawn from the new rate.
Children can do light work from 13 under local council bylaws, such as paper rounds, but the minimum wage does not apply until 16. Between 13 and 15 the pocket wage may well beat what a paper round pays.
Source: GOV.UK — National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, rates from 1 April 2026.
Questions parents ask about 14 year olds.
How much pocket money for a fourteen year old?
At the rate for a fourteen year old, for about four and three quarter hours of jobs a week, the weekly figure on this page. In some countries this is the real legal minimum wage, not a scaled one.
What is a household tax?
A small percentage of each payslip that goes toward something the family chooses together, like a holiday. It is the first time they see money leave a payslip for a shared purpose, which is what tax is.
Can a fourteen year old get a real job?
In the US and Canada, yes, in most kinds of work. In Australia, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, some part-time work is allowed with restrictions. The pocket wage is designed to meet the real wage when they get there.
How much pocket money should a child get in the UK?
The pocket-money surveys published by UK banks find averages of a few pounds a week at primary age and around ten for teenagers, given weekly regardless. A pocket wage pays the rate for their age for the hours they work, so the answer depends on the jobs.
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.