Allowance for a 13 year old in the United States
A teenager. Thirteen is where a pocket wage starts to be compared to what friends earn, and it holds up.
A 13 year old in the United States earns
$6.73an hour
About $28.60 a week if they do 4¼ hours of paid jobs. That's 92.8% 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 a 13 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.
Thirteen year olds can do adult jobs at adult quality: the full weekly clean, all the family washing, cooking most nights if they want the hours, and skilled outdoor work like pressure washing and weeding beds. Ninety-minute jobs are fine. In some countries they can also start light paid work outside the home at this age, usually with no minimum wage protection, which makes the pocket wage a useful yardstick: is that job paying less than the rate at home?
This is also the age to start talking about where the rate comes from. Show them the junior wage table for your country. A thirteen year old who knows what a fifteen year old legally earns is already planning.
The payslip at 13
Jobs, pay, interest, locked savings, and the balance split between spendable and locked. Show the year-to-date total: thirteen year olds are impressed by big numbers they earned.
The Jobs Board at age 13, $6.73 an hour
| Job | Standard time | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Do the full weekly clean | 1 hr 30 min | $10.10 |
| Do all the family washing | 1 hr | $6.73 |
| Cook dinner for the week's busiest night | 45 min | $5.05 |
| Weed and tidy the garden beds | 1 hr | $6.73 |
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 13 year olds.
How much should a thirteen year old get paid for chores?
The rate on this page, for about four and a half hours of jobs a week. It is scaled from the country's minimum wage, so it rises with the law and with every birthday.
Can a thirteen year old work outside the home?
In some countries, light work like a paper round is allowed from thirteen, often with no minimum wage attached. Compare what it pays to their pocket wage before they take it.
Should teenagers be paid for chores at all?
Family Duties, no. The Jobs Board, yes: it is real work, priced by the time it should take, and it is the apprenticeship for the paid job that is one or two years away.
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.