Allowance for an 11 year old in the United States
Eleven is the last year before the payslip starts to grow up, and the jobs are now genuinely useful to the household.
An 11 year old in the United States earns
$5.70an hour
About $19.95 a week if they do 3½ hours of paid jobs. That's 78.6% of the minimum wage in the United States.
Worked out from US Department of Labor — State Minimum Wage Laws, rates from July 24, 2009.
The rate at every age in the United States.
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 States.
- Pocket wage, paid by you
- Real minimum wage, paid by a boss
At 14, the legal minimum in the United States is $7.25 an hour. Pocket Wage draws a straight line from there back to zero, and a kid's age picks the spot on it.
What an 11 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.
Eleven year olds can do a full load of washing from basket to wardrobe, cook dinner for the family with a recipe, clean the kitchen after it, and do the weekly vacuum and mop. An hour of work in a block is fine on a weekend. Many can also babysit a younger sibling for short periods with a parent in the house, which is a real job with a real standard time.
Talk about next year now: at twelve the payslip gets a locked savings line. Explaining it a year early turns it into a milestone rather than a deduction.
The payslip at 11
Jobs, pay, interest, balance, and a preview of the locked savings line that starts at twelve. Show it as zero this year so the change is not a surprise.
The Jobs Board at age 11, $5.70 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Do a full load of washing, basket to wardrobe | 40 min | $3.80 |
| Cook dinner for the family | 45 min | $4.28 |
| Clean the kitchen after dinner | 20 min | $1.90 |
| Vacuum and mop the floors | 40 min | $3.80 |
Example jobs and times. Family Duties, like clearing your own plate, are unpaid: belonging isn't billable.
How junior wages work in the United States.
The United States has a federal minimum wage that has not changed since 2009, and thirty states plus DC set a higher one. The federal minimum working age for most jobs is fourteen, and a fourteen year old is owed the full minimum wage where they live, apart from a few states that permit lower youth rates.
Pocket Wage anchors on your state's minimum wage at fourteen and draws a straight line back to zero. Choose your state at the top: a five year old in California is on a very different ladder from one in Georgia, because their parents are too.
Fourteen for most non-farm work under federal law, with limits on hours during school. Some states set their own rules. The minimum wage applies from the first hour.
Source: US Department of Labor — State Minimum Wage Laws, rates from July 24, 2009.
By state
The rate for an 8 year old, worked out from each one's own minimum wage.
- Alabama$4.14
- Alaska$8.00
- Arizona$8.66
- Arkansas$6.29
- California$9.66
- Colorado$8.66
- Connecticut$9.68
- Delaware$8.57
- District of Columbia$10.51
- Florida$8.00
- Georgia$4.14
- Hawaii$9.14
- Idaho$4.14
- Illinois$8.57
- Indiana$4.14
- Iowa$4.14
- Kansas$4.14
- Kentucky$4.14
- Louisiana$4.14
- Maine$8.63
- Maryland$8.57
- Massachusetts$8.57
- Michigan$7.85
- Minnesota$6.52
- Mississippi$4.14
- Missouri$8.57
- Montana$6.20
- Nebraska$8.57
- Nevada$6.86
- New Hampshire$4.14
- New Jersey$9.10
- New Mexico$6.86
- New York$9.14
- North Carolina$4.14
- North Dakota$4.14
- Ohio$6.29
- Oklahoma$4.14
- Oregon$8.89
- Pennsylvania$4.14
- Rhode Island$9.14
- South Carolina$4.14
- South Dakota$6.77
- Tennessee$4.14
- Texas$4.14
- Utah$4.14
- Vermont$8.24
- Virginia$7.30
- Washington$9.79
- West Virginia$5.00
- Wisconsin$4.14
- Wyoming$4.14
Questions parents ask about 11 year olds.
How much should an eleven year old earn from chores?
At the hourly rate for an eleven year old, for around three and a half hours a week, the weekly figure is on this page. What they earn depends on the hours, and the hours are the family's dial.
Can an eleven year old have a paid job outside the home?
In most countries not yet, apart from things like paper rounds where local rules allow. The pocket wage is the only wage they can earn, which is why it is worth getting right.
What is a locked savings slice?
A share of each payslip, from about twelve, that goes into savings they cannot spend until a date you both agree. It is the family version of a term deposit and it starts next year.
How much allowance should a kid get by age?
The old rule of a dollar per year of age per week gives a ten year old ten dollars for nothing. Pocket Wage pays a rate instead: your state's minimum wage scaled to their age, for the jobs they do.
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.