Pocket money for a 9 year old in the United Kingdom
At nine the jobs start to look like the ones you do, and the rate has climbed enough to be worth planning around.
A 9 year old in the United Kingdom earns
£4.50an hour
About £13.50 a week if they do 3 hours of paid jobs. That's 35.4% 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 9 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.
Nine year olds can wash the car, clean the bathroom mirror and sink, cook a simple breakfast for the family, and rake the leaves. Half-hour jobs are fine. They are also old enough for the timer game: race the standard time and see the effective hourly rate go up when they beat it. That is the first time most kids understand what efficiency means.
Watch for the moment they ask what a job is worth before agreeing to do it. That is not greed. It is exactly what a working adult does, and it means the model is working.
The payslip at 9
Jobs, pay, interest if you pay it, balance. Nine year olds can be shown last week's payslip next to this one and asked what changed.
The Jobs Board at age 9, £4.50 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Wash the car | 30 min | £2.25 |
| Clean the bathroom mirror and sink | 15 min | £1.13 |
| Make breakfast for the family | 20 min | £1.50 |
| Rake the leaves | 30 min | £2.25 |
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 9 year olds.
Is nine old enough to earn by the hour?
Yes. The rate is scaled to their age, so an hour of a nine year old's work pays less than an hour of a fifteen year old's. That is how junior wages work in the real economy too.
How do I stop them rushing the job badly?
A job is not done until it is done properly, and it does not pay until it is done. Standard time rewards speed, but the parent still signs it off.
Can they propose their own jobs?
They should. A kid who spots that the garage needs sweeping and asks what it pays is doing exactly what the system is for. You set the standard time; it joins the board.
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.