Pocket money for a 15 year old in the United Kingdom
Fifteen is where the family rate meets the real one in much of the world. Every birthday since five has been leading here.
A 15 year old in the United Kingdom earns
£7.50an hour
About £37.50 a week if they do 5 hours of paid jobs. That's 59% 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 15 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.
A fifteen year old can do any job in the house at the standard an adult would, and in Australia and New Zealand is now owed a real junior wage by any employer. The pocket wage at fifteen is that wage, or the last step below it, depending on the country. Whatever they do at home should be priced the same way a boss would price it: by the hour, at the legal rate, for the time it should take.
Use this year to make the payslip look exactly like the one they will get from a first employer: gross pay, deductions, net, year to date. When the first real payslip arrives, it should be boring.
The payslip at 15
A complete payslip: gross, interest, locked savings, household tax, net, year to date. The same shape as a real one, because a real one is next.
The Jobs Board at age 15, £7.50 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Run the whole house for a day while parents are out | 3 hr | £22.50 |
| Full garden maintenance | 2 hr | £15.00 |
| Wash, vacuum and detail the car | 1 hr 30 min | £11.25 |
| Cook and clean up dinner all week | 4 hr | £30.00 |
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 15 year olds.
How much should a fifteen year old earn at home?
The rate on this page, which in several countries is the actual legal minimum for their age. For about five hours a week of jobs, the weekly figure is what a first casual job would pay for the same hours.
Should they get a real job instead?
Both. A first job is a promotion from the Jobs Board, not a replacement for it. If they take one, keep the pocket wage running for the jobs at home they still do.
What is the Allowance Cliff?
The jump from flat pocket money to hours, rates and a payslip, all in the same week a kid starts work. A pocket wage replaces the cliff with a staircase, one step a birthday, and fifteen is near the top.
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.