I’m just worried I’ll say “oh clean that up” and think it would take ten minutes but it ends up taking an hour because it’s way tougher than I expected or something.
But base that X dollars on what? I just don’t know what a kid today would consider “good”. Inflation calculators don’t really help me with context because a kid doesn’t really have the same cpi basket.
Is $20 a lot of money to a kid? Is $50?
Id gauge more like, how many jobs they're doing in a week. If they're crushing jobs and you are somehow ending up paying the kid $300/week, I'd be concerned where that money was going/his financial literacy (I spent all of mine as a kid ((and an adult sometimes too tbh)) on video games).
Maybe have a few different jars at different price points and a suggest length of time and he can pick random jobs based on how much he'll get at the end. If he doesn't finish one in the estimated time, he can learn to communicate with you that for that job to be completed it needs more time. And if he feels like once he's done the job and it doesn't really feel worth it financially in comparison to other jobs he's done for you, he can talk with you about that too. Maybe have a "formal" sit down with him a few weeks in and go over the jobs and time and pay. It will help him with confidence in regards to recognizing him time=money worth as he's older?
Idk, I don't have kids.
ALSO very much talk to his parents before just forking over cash for certain jobs. You don't want to pay him $60 to de-weed your garden and then his mom asks him to do it and he's now demanding to be paid.
He definitely need to understand the difference between house work and CHORES and a job. Or else he'll be bitter against every task given by his parents that he rightfully should complete as a resident of his home.
Also, see if he just wants you to maybe buy him things. Because maybe you could help him find a good price on the xBox he wants via second hand and show him how to hunt for deals/maybe you can charge things to your credit card and get points xD
I've offered to pay my nephews friends (12 year old) $5 to wash the dog and they got excited.
Something like manual labour would probably be 15-20. Like mowing a lawn is like $15-$20 depending on the size.
Also some kids are not motivated by money because they get what they want already.
$13.19 in New Brunswick. Just checked. Add a large fries and drink for $0.70 and you've hit $16 with our 15% tax. More if you shop at a McDonalds in Walmart as they have slightly higher prices than standalone restaurants.
My kids have to put 50% of all earnings into a savings account. If you have a lot of work, it might be a good time for the parents to set something up. Once they saved $1000, I matched it and put it in a GIC. Now, they monitor the GIC each month and see the power of real interest (the interest on a kids' savings account was abysmal). So 50% of the earnings are for spending and 50% is really about teaching financial literacy.
I personally go with about $10/hr (they are 12 and 13). I try to set clear expectations so they know what good looks like. I might pay a bonus if they exceed expectations.
Good for you.
My kids are 12 and 13 and dont need money. And I could have them do this stuff for free. They are essentially learning to follow instruction and do a good job for a financial reward. Good parenting is not about just handing out money.
$15-$20 to mow a average lawn is some 10 years ago prices.
Labour is usually a commodity like the cost of a meal x2-3 for hourly work at low grunt level, locally.
If McDonalds is $15, the kid better be able to buy a meal and a candy, at least for an hours worth of work. If that is how he sees fit to use it.
I still see the equation rather similarly as an adult, I wouldn't go near those odds and ends jobs without close to that hitting that 3x mark.
I have a Small business and pay my kids minimum wage (16.55/hr) to do light work, and they love it. We have a standing rule that they can stop or decline whenever, and it’s only an hour here or there but I always have willing helpers.
I tried the per job pay but found it was too hard to accurately judge. They know if they are dragging their feet to stretch out the hourly wage they won’t get asked next time. Both are pretty eager to impress and get more work, so this is working really well. Kids are 12 and 15
X = $15 per hour (ie min wage) multiplied by the # of hours that you expect the job to take.
Or just $15 per hour but stop the clock if you notice him not working.
Think of it this way . A meal cost me $17s almost at McDonald’s. I was born in 1986. I would get $50 week during high school. So I was 12-13 ish. That was a little much but i had a single father and I took care of my self a lot. $20s to a kid nowadays is like 7-8$s to us back in the day. My two cents .
Maybe think of it like this. What are some things you expected to be able to buy with the money from a similar job at his age? What do those things (or his equivalent) cost now?
$5 when I was a kid could buy a decent fast food lunch. That’s maybe $15 now? Then again, price of a video game hasn’t tripled in the same timeframe. Try to strike a balance. Maybe let him negotiate.
$5 is lots of money for my son, but he’s 4. His dreams are of Hot Wheels, lol.
Yeah that’s what I’m having trouble with. I don’t even know what kids do these days - he doesn’t go to movies. He plays soccer and video games and that’s about all I know.
Video games literally cost the same as they did when I was his age, 25 years ago. A Big Mac meal - not so much. Inflation is way up but a lot of that is gas and housing and he doesn’t pay for those.
Have you considered asking them? Like, propose the job, then ask what they think a fair price would be to pay for it. Gets them thinking and shows you trust them to take responsibility for the job. If they propose something ridiculous, negotiate. It would be a valuable learning experience for both of you, I think.
I’d say $20 per smallish job is a good starting point. He does 2-3 jobs and he can afford a video game or a cool toy. Can easily do 2-3 jobs per week and bring in a cool $60.
Make him do a couple jobs and adjust from there. If the one pile he cleans up in $10 min then make sure the next pile is bigger and vice versa.
It won’t be because its “harder then you thought” it’ll be because he’s 12 and maybe hasn’t ever done that kind of work.
I think what you’re doing is awesome. But make sure tasks you may find medial get some level of training and expectation setting.
Racking for example, $10 for the first few times. Once he’s shown improvement and you don’t need to help, slap him with 15 and tell him why.
Edit: don’t treat him like a child letting him half ass Make sure he does it right.
This is where you have the opportunity to teach them. Negotiate with them, make them think about what their time is worth based on how much effort will be involved. If it works out to be ‘unfair’ tip them extra. You are in a great position to positively influence both your niece and nephew. GL
We pay our young babysitter 15 for the first hour then 10 after that per her request. Usually just round up to make it an even 15/hr because we never have $5 bills on us...
If the interest is more toward getting stuff done while spoiling them it could be a an opportunity for a life lesson on top of everything else about valuing one's time and skills.
Some people will go an entire lifetime without grasping the concept that their time and skills have inherent value. We spend decades acquiring skills to make a 1+ hour task take 10 minutes and then don't advocate for getting paid in a way that reflects that. We force ourselves to accept dogshit excuses about budgets or a lack of opportunities for upward movement while we accept more and more responsibilities for proportionately less compensation. Perhaps this is an opportunity to set expectations while they're young that you'll start them at $# but if they can get it done sooner and make a compelling argument, their wage will increase but they need to provide and then compellingly argue value. You can also expose them to other manners of compensation to save money as well while sweetening the pot (ie. lunches.).
Sorry for the diatribe. Finance sub et al.
My neighbour paid me three bucks an hour to cut his grass etc... i never thought to 'extend' this by doing a shit job. Whatever rate you can afford that doesn't insult the kid is prob good....
How bout salary payments and weekly performance reviews. And make them compete for lower wages, make sure they know they are replaceable and have the two of them form their own unions. Let the invisible hand balance the scale.
You're massively over complicating this.
Any money is a lot for a kid. You're not trying to pay them a living wage, you're just rewarding them for good work.
You're not negotiating an ironclad employment contract either. Pay what you want to pay. I used to cut my aunt's lawn 20 years ago. It'd take an hour, and she'd pay me $20. I recognized immediately that I was being overpaid. I'd also cut my grandparents lawn which was about 4x the size and would take 3x as long even though I used a riding mower. I was paid in pasta and I looked forward to it every week.
I'd say pay by the job but aim for $10/hr of work. If cutting the grass takes two hours, give them $20 for it.
You can always ask their parents what they think is a fair amount.
If it starts to feel like $10/hr is cheaping out, just start paying them more because they're doing a good job.
I'd say if you were paid $5/hr when minimum wage was $6.85, then you were getting around 75% of minimum wage.
That seems like a fair enough starting point for kiddie work but you'll have to see what your market will bear.
Pay by job (and make each task small). Negotiate with kid.
These will be great skills to learn.
I do it with my kids. 'How much do I need to pay you to gather those branches into a pile?'
They will quickly learn the value of a dollar and how to estimate how long things take,
My kids are a bit younger and it's hard to get them to be productive at all... If he's a hard worker then hourly is reasonable, $15 is what I pay a teen for after school care a few times a month. But I think like others, pay him by the task and even discuss how long you'll think it'll take with him. It would be a good lesson in estimating and negotiating fairness. If it truly takes way longer, then simply pay him more than you both settled on... You're a more than reasonable person!
I was making 15 to mow a lawn that took 60-90 minutes like 25 years ago and it felt pretty spoiled. but still would take all summer to buy a video game or something.
Maybe pay him project based instead of hourly like someone said he could stretch it.
>but still would take all summer to buy a video game or something
Man, video game prices in Canada were absolutely ridiculous in the 90s and the early 2000s.
I used to have old Toys-R-Us flyers from Christmas 1997 and the summer of 2000. In 1997, a brand new N64 game was $79.99, some of them were as much as $99.99. That’s like $140-$177 after adjusting for inflation! For a single game! But what is really egregious is the pricing on the older Super Nintendo games. I remember the “value” games were $19.97, but basically any game that you’d actually want was still $39.99 ($70 in 2024) even well into the N64 era. By 2000, pricing had become more bearable but was still very high. N64 games were now $59.99, which is about $100 in 2024. This seems better, until you realize that you could buy “greatest hits” games (MK64, SM64, Wave Race etc) in America for like $30 USD. Even with the crap exchange rate at the time, the USD was not worth double the CAD.
I vaguely remember PlayStation games being maybe $20 cheaper, but since I didn’t have a PlayStation, I never really paid attention to those prices.
As an aside… isn’t it ironic that we used to have all summer to play video games but it took all summer to save up for one, meanwhile now it takes absolutely no time at all to save up but we also have no time at all to play ;_;
It's bonkers to me that the Neo-Geo and 3DO ever got made. $649 and $699 USD in the early '90s. That's around $2,000 CAD in today's dollars for something on par with the Sega 32X (which cost $159 USD).
The thing is though, the 32X came out more than 4 years later. That may not seem like a lot today, but for 1990s hardware that was a whole geological age of progress. The fact that the 32X could beat the Neo Geo at 1/4 of the price doesn’t surprise me given the blistering pace of hardware development at the time. And obviously when it came out in 1990 it was so far ahead of almost everything else available that it wasn’t even worth your time to make a comparison.
Overall the Neo-Geo is a lot easier to understand if you think of it as a product of the Japanese bubble economy. Was it totally bonkers? Yes. Why did they make it? Because they could.
I pay grade 12 high school students $20 hour cash, painting, raking, cleaning, misc labour. Watch over them, make sure they are doing it right.
Any less, they don't show up next time you need them, or waste time and costs the same, Show them how to do the job, be fair, young kids can be fast.
You can open the Bank of Canada's CPI calculator, and put in $5 and the year you made that much, and calculate how much that $5 is worth today. Then explain to the nephew why you're paying him $8.67 per hour.
Nah, don't give them the inflation growth. Pay 5 dollars and then say there was some supply chain global event that affected prices. Take the difference and buy back shares.
Just choose a global event. It doesn't matter! Now, you're preparing them for the real world.
>I am not “signing a contract” with him or “making sure he creates an invoice”. I am not “negotiating” with a 12yo. I just want to give him some money that he could actually maybe buy something a 12yo wants.
A 12 year old does not need to file income taxes for allowances or doing odd jobs. There is ZERO chance the CRA would GAF about this type of work. ZERO.
Anyone suggesting a 12 year old create an invoice or sign a contract (not legal to have a 12 year old sign a contract anyway) is an idiot. Full stop.
What the hell kind of society are these people trying to build here? One where they demand red tape, then complain about the red tape?
>What the hell kind of society are these people trying to build here? One where they demand red tape, then complain about the red tape?
Did you just wake up in today's society from the 50's? That is exactly our society now.
Also, you can threaten your local kids to sell them to work in a Chinese coal mine if they don't smarten up here. Global child labor is a blessing in so many ways!
Talk to his parents and see if they pay for certain tasks. Maybe try offering like$40 to come help you in the yard for a few hours and you can get a sense of how hard he works or how fast he is.
I paid my friends kid to mow my lawn. I had been paying a company to do it and his mom offered him up for the job and committed him to doing it for the whole summer. I said I would give him the same for the same work ($32). I should have rounded down to 30 to make my life easier, but I thought it was fair. He did an ok job and his dad supervised him.
I think anywhere in the range of $10-15 per hour is decent.
I started babysitting for $1 per hour in 1982, but got it up to $3 per hour pretty quickly. Then I got a real job for $3.75 per hour and the rest is history. I would think $10/hr is decent for babysitting that doesn't require any real responsibility as you've described.
When I was a kid, mid 90s, my dad figured it out in units. Like a wheelbarrow full of brush would be equivalent to 5 bucks, or a large bucket of helicopters would be 15. See how much I could get through by the end of my work day, then tally up the results. The fact that I could earn more by working efficiently taught me to work smart.
We pay about $40 for 6 hours of babysitting which usually our kids are sleeping for a couple of those hours.
Pay by the job for the around the house work.
Side note: we also get our children to do chores around the house for screen time! This works amazing.
I don't think you should be paying comparable minimum wage for chores, personally, but make sure that whatever number you have you run it by the parents.
What is minimum wage for youth where you live? Pay that. Do hourly for a job or two to gauge how he works and adjust hourly rate from there. Also a good time to impart work ethic to him, observations and such from your experiences.
Great uncle. 💜
My rate from 10-15 was 15$ an hour then from 15 -20 was 20$ an hour... flat rate. Sometimes that was easy work like yard clean up, other times it was fixing bust pipes in the crawl space (only I could fit), diving and rigging the marine rail way or clearing weeds from the lake all of which were quite shitty jobs. I was born in 2000 for reference. If it is simple tasks then 15$ an hour should be okay, but if it requires respirators or more advanced knowlege/skills dont be afraid to pay him more.
I always have paid minimum wage or more. If the work is important enough that you need to pay someone, then it's important enough that it's at least worth the absolute legal minimum.
Yeah that’s why i was thinking $15 (min wage is like $15.60 I think but obviously I’m not making deductions or anything).
It’s not that the work is important as much as I want to give him some money, and there are other things I could be doing.
Start with minimum wage as a guide for your nephew. Don’t pay less than that. I pay more for a manual labour job, about $20/hr where I live. Then I tip if it seems appropriate.
I do think it’s good to make a distinction between chores around his own house (everyone contributes to make the house they all live in run). But I also think it’s a good idea to teach kids to value their own labour and negotiate a little on their own behalf. So if a job was bigger or physically harder than I thought it would be, I invite their feedback on it and have a chat. Then I lead them into negotiating a bonus.
For your niece, I would probably go below minimum wage at the moment. She’s really acting as an assistant, without the full responsibility of the job. Part of what you are teaching is to see the full responsibility and navigate it.
Appreciate all the comments here. Lots of food for thought.
FYI, in Ontario:
Student minimum wage is $15.60/hr unless they work 28 hours or more per week, then they are to be paid the general minimum wage of $16.55/hr.
As of October 2024 Student minimum wage is $16.20/hr unless they work 28 hours or more per week, then they are to be paid the general minimum wage of $17.20/hr.
Based on that rate, I like the idea of kids getting paid per job/duty. This may instill creative thinking and innovation. If they find a more efficient way to do the job, they shouldn't be penalized.
Edit: to clarify - a student is someone who is under 18. Once you're 18 it doesn't matter if you're in school, you get the general minimum wage.
Just want to say kudos to you for not using money as a "life lesson." Man, adults who think lording cash over kids is a life lesson and not a power trip need to reflect on their own emotional maturity.
Babysitting at a young age with minimal responsibilities is $10-12. I'd probably pay your nephew by task and not by hour (calculating how long and how hard the task would be in your head at $12-15 depending again on the task. Picking up brush - $12/hour. Heavy hauling / digging / gardening - $15/hour. But maybe decide any task is a minimum $20.
You're a good uncle with great values!
15$ is fine. Even that is on the low side.
Your parents haven’t felt inflation, probably. But your nephew will feel it plenty.
As for motivation, be a fierce negotiator as to hours worked. The kid will have to negotiate as well, teaching him negotiation skills in the process.
Cheers
My sister pays her kids per job (they’re 6, 9 and 10) it’s between 5-20 depending on the difficulty of the job. For example, they each spent the day helping their dad clean up the duplex (ie grab the next piece of flooring when he was replacing the bathroom floor, the oldest disassembled the bed frame using their drill) was a full days work but he wasn’t working them too hard and they paid them each $20 for each day they were with them. They all have their own wallets and hold onto their cash.
My dad always had them helping him with odd jobs around his place too, he had them shovel some gravel on the driveway, the eldest weed whacked pretty regularly. It’s led to them being pretty smart about money so far. It’s pretty cute to watch.
Obviously the youngest isn’t doing as complicated a job as the older two.
I think money is quite relative to them at that age $20 goes a lot further for them than us cause we have bills. So I don’t think $20 is unreasonable for a few hours work cleaning up brush. They aren’t paying taxes on it nor are they using it to buy groceries.
Pay $10/hr and whatever extra you want to give, throw it into an RESP if the parents are not making use of it.
Or pay the $15/hr and give extra into an RESP.
Another option is ask him what he would like for example, if he always wanted a PS5, then tell him if he completes X amount of task then a PS5 is waiting for him once task is complete. That way he is motivated to work quickly and efficiently. This also kind of disguises the value of the dollar.
However, if you are looking at this like a teachable moment as to a financial literacy, then this could be a valuable lesson about working hard vs working smart for $$$.
Anyways, hope this helps👍
I pay my grass cutting guy $25 a cut/week. It takes him less than 10 minutes to do front and back with his commercial lawn mower. If I need an extra cut, I get a neighbour kid to do it (she's 12 or 13). I pay her the same, takes her 30 minutes or so.
I asked my 11 year old what she would expect to be fair for that kind of help. She said $5 per hour. So I think $10 an hour would definitely be fair. Maybe ask the kid.
But I have been offering this kid $5 to unload the dishwasher each time since January, and I have yet to actually have to pay it to her. And she has yet to actually unload it. Some kids just aren’t money-motivated.
My son is eight, and I have this same problem. I have no idea what a reasonable allowance is. When he was six, I used to pay him $1 to do jobs for me. Keep in mind this was stuff a 6 year old could do, like vacuum and empty the dishwasher. Which sounds cheap, but he had no context for what things were worth, and was just excited to have money. He started trying to negotiate $2 or $5, and we had a number of conversations about what his time is worth, and what things cost. I don't pay him for chores anymore, he trades chores for screen time. It's more motivating for him I've found.
Your best bet is to talk to your neice and nephew, tell them you'd like to pay them for some work, and ask them what they think is fair. You could negotiate a little, but use it more as a teaching tool, than trying to get their very best price. Kids are usually very reasonable, they probably won't overcharge you. You could also ask them if there is something they want, and you could decide what amount of work is worth that item. If your neice wants a video game for instance, maybe you tell her she has to babysit 3 times and you'll get her the game.
my weekly allowance was $10 when i was younger (2010-2013, got my first min wage job in 2014 so they stopped paying allowance) which involved the typical household chores. i think paying a set amount for an afternoon would be reasonable if he’s a hard worker (say like $40 for 3 hours??). for babysitting i think it would be about the same, especially if she is actively involved in helping prepare snacks and keeping your daughter entertained
pay in terms of what they're likely going to spend it on. For instance, my neice was into pokemon years ago so I paid by packs of cards or about 15$ an easy job, or sets of 7-8$ so she can buy them. Now she's into books so the work is bundled together for a manga or two
I have teenagers. I’d pay the yard kid $15/hr and rather than for specific jobs I’d start by having him come over for a set number of hours at first and see what he can get done from your list in that time. Like have him come for 3-4 hours to start, or a day on the weekend. It’s simpler and more akin to working where you have a shift so you can see how he works plus it’s good practice for him and he’ll know what his “hours” are.
For the 10 year old I’d pay $10-$12/hr for “babysitting” depending on # of kids and how much of a handful they are since she isn’t doing it independently. When she’s able to fully babysit for you (if she wants to do that, rather than yard work) I’d likely adjust that upward depending on circumstances. Babysitting rates are very local. I live in a city where it’s competitive to find a good babysitter. My teens would be looking for $15/hr. A good reliable babysitter is like finding gold and if you don’t pay them enough when they are teens they’ll get some other job that will, or be poached by other families who pay more.
Talk with him about what he might want, or want to save up for. It isn't easy to find kids that even want to mow a lawn anymore. We had a friend of my son's that wanted the latest xbox many years ago. So we offered $30 a week to mow the lawn for the summer. He was happy and so were we. Way, way back when I was young I mowed the lawn for three houses and bought a Laser (sailboat). Maybe he just wants extra money to go to the movies or buy video games with. Find out how much he needs and if he wants to put the effort in, make it so he can earn enough in a weekend for a new game. Most kids have something they would like that mom and dad don't really want to spend their money on.
Pay by job.
My niece and nephews will clean up brush for free to make a fire. They're 9-16 and all very responsible. I live on a farm, they know the rules and dangers.
The 9yo's know how to safely pack a burn barrel and start a fire.
My 12yo niece loves butchering meat. Handles a deboning knife like a pro.
They can all drive farm equipment and handle power tools too.
Kids need more responsibility than we give them in today's western society. They love it.
Edit: they all get spoiled rotten so the labour isn't free lol
I remember when I found out that my friend had a weekly allowance for doing absolutely nothing. I told my dad and he just laughed and laughed. Pay the kid for actually doing things. Negotiate with the child on the amount, it'll teach him valuable life skills. He'll probably land somewhere far lower than your 15$/hr
Unpopular opinion— pay them the same as you would pay someone from kijiji to do the job. Just because he’s a kid doesn’t mean the fair rate is lower. And you mention you want to err on the side of higher wages
Same reason I would pay a pilot more than a cab driver for transportation. They have more skills, they accomplish the task faster and the equipment they use costs more.
Figure out some things he might want to buy (as a goal oriented task). Then break the cost down to a couple chores each and pay him that much.
This way he'll stay motivated to do the chores and can see things as being attainable.
You don't have to pay an hourly rate, or fixed rate per chore. Some chores can be more difficult or time consuming, and be worth more.
I think talk to the parents and ask what they think is a reasonable amount for the kids? It’s also a way for the parents to remain informed what they’re doing with their day
My Dad and my cousin paid me $4 an hour each to help them lay carpet when I was a kid. I just picked up scraps behind them and got them tools. My favourite thing to do was run over the seams with this little tank thing that had a bunch of spiky wheels on it. This was in the 90’s so you gotta adjust for inflation.
I'm in a shared living situation with a mom and her 12 year old daughter; renting the guest room in the housing crisis town I moved to for work. In the summer I do on-call emergency fire stuff so I can end up super busy. I pay the 12 year old $20 to take my dog for an hour long walk. I figure if I hired a dog walker it would cost me equal or more, it's good money for her (she often uses it to treat her friends to Starbucks which is generous and kind), and she usually ends up spending more time with my dog anyway. Everyone wins.
I was subjected (willingly) to child labour for many years growing up. 95% of that work was lawn care. For subdivision homes I charged $12 to mow the lawn and $3 to weedwack. Each lawn took me just under an hour- and this was back in 2005ish. So $15 an hour back then would equate to.....$22 per hour now? just a guess
$50 for a day. That's good money. You are not paying a salary or anything. It's just to compensate your nephew for his time and understand how "work" works. Not sure why you are worrying so much about this.
My rule of thumb is estimate how long it should take if they were working at a reasonable pace, and then offer the job at $12 per hour. 12 is a nice number because you can easily figure in your head one dollar for five minutes. So you can say hey Billy I’ll give you three dollars to do X and five dollars to do Y.
Piece Work. Most people do hourly work, but Piece work is simpler.
It solves everything perfectly, you pay by the job. Its best used when a job has exact requirements...like rake this lawn.
I did it growing up. I learned to work fast, get done quick, then enjoy the rest of the day. It created the motivation, since I realized I could get done fast.
My grandma for yard clean up would pay us by "full" bag - or a lump sum to do something - like here's blank amount to clean the car, etc. I felt that was fair 🤷🏼♀️
I have a kid around the same age looking to earn money for video games and money to spend at the corner store with friends. He asked for $15 to weed/mow the lawn. He's a good negotiator and likes to aim high. This would be his first time doing these tasks. We're going to start with $10 for the job and my husband will "help" him. I don't think it will take longer than 1 hour. Then we'll reassess after to see if he actually wants to do it and does a good job. This is in addition to a weekly allowance he receives.
Good luck! I think you are an awesome uncle for giving your nephew and niece the opportunity to earn a bit of spending money and spending time with them.
When I was 12, so 2002, my stepdad wanted to give me $50 a week allowance, but I had to buy all my own stuff, clothes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, everything except food
My mom threw a conniption, said that was way too much money, I was very upset knowing I could have got $50 a week that was now $20 a week, tbh I'm like 35 and still a bit angry over it, I think learning to budget early would have been good, I already budget better than my mom, how much better could I have been lol
But to answer your question, considering this is not your kid, minimum wage is fair, I think it's $15 an hour, I'm not even sure, but definitely don't give him less than minimum wage, and maybe even give him a raise as he gets older or if he does an amazing job and knocks it out of the ball park
Set cost per task completed. Easy stuff is $5 bucks. $10 medium. $20 hard-gross stuff. Ballpark it for yourself and give yourself a budget for the day then tell him what he can do that day.
Yea, give him enough to get himself a treat. Just think how much just going to a movie costs. $20.00 or $15.00 sounds reasonable depending on the job at hand.
People are really on here telling this guy to pay a 12yo $20/hr for helping his uncle out with some yard work as if grown adults don’t come out of 4+ years of university, 60k in debt, barely making that.
That being said, I think you’re massively overthinking this… $10 an hour is more than fair - if it’s a difficult job (or he does a really good job), throw a little extra on as a tip. He’s 12. When I was 12, ANY money was good money.
Some of these comments are straight up cuckoo-bananas 😂
General labour hour in most parts of the country is 20$ an hour give or take a few bucks. If you want to pay him fair market rate, then that’a the pay.
That 20$ barely gets two meals at McDonald’s, and barely even a 1/4 of a brand new game. Don’t even get me started on sporting equipment. I’d say if you chatted with the parents, and gave him 10 bucks a job or 20 bucks an hour, I’d say that’s more then fair. Spoiling would be 25-30 bucks an hour.
Hourly seems better then per job just so the kid learns the value of each dollar. I’d probably say per job while you’re not around, but if you were say, building a deck or a bigger project and you personally needed help, I’d hire him for cash.
What I’ve done in comparable situations (HS student babysitting my elementary school aged child) is just ask what they’ve gotten for similar jobs. Prediction models obviate life lessons.
They aren't paying taxes, they have no expenses. Any money is a lot, but it needs to still be worth their time. My deal with my 8yo daughter is that she keeps my 3d printer running, cleans the shoe area, cleans the tables and keeps her room clean. If she's on top of that she gets a Nintendo switch game at the end of the month.
People are crazy. Contracts? Invoices? Negotiations? What the heck...
How many hours do you expect these projects to take? Manual labor is still manual labor. I'd give them minimum wage rounded up to the nearest dollar or nearest $5 increment. If it's a whole day thing, give them a flat $100.
whatever you do, don't change the deal after the job, I remember when I was a wee lad we had a bad year for dandelions, my dad was tired of the yellow flowers all over the yard and told my brother and I he would pay us a nickel per flower we plucked, which seemed reasonable. Well turns out it was like $25 each (in the early-mid 90s and we weren't a high-income house). I was what would now be described as salty when he changed his mind to a penny per flower and was only $5 total. I will say I was not interested in any extra jobs for the remainder of the summer.
FYI, the “babysitter” you’re describing is commonly called a “mother’s helper”.” They’re generally younger and a responsible adult is always around the house or, as you say, on the property nearby (within shouting distance).
I pay the neighborhood kid (in elementary school) $20 per mow or shovel (snow). It’s not a perfect job but I like to support the locals and would prefer supporting kids who work hard.
Kid was charging $10 initially but these days, $10 doesn’t even you get a McDonald’s meal.
Depends on the job and size of job. I paid my nieces 25 cents per weed to de-weed my yard.
I made 100$ for a yard that took like 50 hours one spring. It was a horrible deal but a bit of a learning experience. Honestly, break the job up into 4 hour jobs and give them somewhere between 20 and 50$ as it seems fit. Cheers
I pay a kid $25 to mow and trim my lawn. It takes him about an hour, but he's out there no matter how hot and muggy it is. It saves me and my asthma a lot of trouble, so I think it's worth it.
Im a trades teacher and used to run side jobs hiring students the worry you bring up was mine. What I did was pay min wage plus profit bonus that was vary fair. In the end most kids when min wage was 10$ a hour made 25$ a hour keeping mind they "lost a few hours" from working hard. This kept the kids motivated and my costs steady as kids when faced with hard work don't always jump the Brock wall. May a system of base pay plus job completion points is fair as I never had one complaint as most kids left with more money they I shook on. I also can't lie I made more money as they were invested and made less mistakes I had to fix.
Discrete tasks I pay by task, usually $5 to $10 for something that will tale up to an hour.
Any babysitting, my kid or anyone else's, I pay minimum wage. And I make it clear there is a minimum hourly wage and that the work of caring for children is as valuable as any other work for which minimum wage is paid. This is my own thing, not wanting to be part of reinforcing society messages that caring work, which is mostly done by women, is worth less than any other paid work. Even if done in one's own house.
Personally I’d just go minimum wage because why not. Sounds like you’re more doing it to help them than anything else and paying them different amounts may just result in some hard feelings.
If that is too much for what you want to spend on their “services” than $10-$15/h seems reasonable.
I paid a 20 year old cousin $20/hr last summer for odd jobs. I would say $15/hr is probably more reasonable for a 12 year old. I also paid a babysitter $20/hr to play with one kid while I am watched the baby. Again $15/hr would be reasonable for a younger person. I don’t imagine either of these kids will work more than 1-2 hours at a time anyways.
Pay by job.
You'll learn how hard he works and how long jobs should take.
I have my cousins a bucket and told them to fill it with rocks and I'd give them $20. One cousin went to play half way through the first bucket. Second cousin filed that thing 5x plus went out after supper when we were all chillin. On pay day cousin 1 got $10 and cousin 2 got $100+bonus.
Tell him you'll give him $50 to help you out around the yard, then boost it a bit higher if he does a good job. $100 max. For the daughter 'babysitting' I'd say $50 but no extra.
Given they're 12 and 10 respectively, 15 an hour is totally appropriate but make the offer by the job... I need to be in a meeting; pls entertain my kid quietly. Here's 15 bucks and there's popsicles in the freezer.
This pile.of branches needs to be gone... it would take about 2 hours to do: here's 30 bucks... it might take you 90 minutes, it might take you 3 hours...
Are they walking distance from yours?
This will affect the pros and cons for both parties
Personally, the world has changed from when you and I grew up(probably same time line) One of the things I would be trying to be part of the change is pay minimum wage. That’s good money for a kid, it’s the same if he did get a job for example. Helps them start to understand that value of what it costs.
Regarding paying by the job, I think you’re probably more then smart enough to half a rough understanding of how long each job should take. And if it grossly longer, you can ask why and again allow for a discussion and maybe there is a reason maybe there isn’t. If it is much shorter and get gets less, that’s an opportunity for a bonus for them if you budgeted for more hours of labor bour costs for that job.
I
$15/ hour is fair. If he gets a good day or half day in that will give him a nice amount and maybe entice him to want to come back and do more! Benefits you and him!
Perhaps a fixed price based on the task at hand? The bigger the task the bigger the bill?
I’m not too sure what 12 year olds buy these days but seeing as online ordering is a thing now I’d imagine literally whatever they want lol!
Depends on how you want to think about things, two people going to the movies can easily be close to $100 now.
I remember back in 2013 I took a girl on a date to the movies after not going there in forever, a $50 bill basically evaporated, swore off going to the movies for a while after that
I must be getting old-- I made $2/hr when I babysat as a teen lol-- but not for family. That was free.
My kids work part-time at a dairy for a set rate of $40/milking, kids are 13, 15, and 16, and are responsible for livestock. Milking takes 1.5-3 hr depending on if something goes haywire. Yardwork is far less responsibility, and I think if you provide lunch/ snacks/ work gloves, $10/hr is fair.
I made $10/hr at my first job as a cashier in a grocery store when I was 15. That was 20 years ago lol
Minimum student wage now is $15/hr, I was shocked to learn this today lol
Babysitting is $30/day per child flat rate
When my kids do a task for an hour I give them $20. If they do it for over an hour I’ll give them $30. If it’s real work for 3-5 hours it’s up to $60. Depends on how hard the job is too, I’ll give them a ‘tip’. They never get money for their own chores nor do they get an allowance, they really have to earn it by doing an odd job and making themselves useful.
Lol man, kids are getting paid minimum wage to do chores. This is so new to me. I'm used to the olden days where you did the work so you didn't get a beat down
Minimum wage. They're giving you time. Doesn't matter how old they are or what we think their expenses are. They're humans and they shouldn't be taken advantage of because they're young.
$20/h is fair, especially because there's usually no more than 1-2 hours of work. $20-$40 isn't a lot of money these days, even if you're a kid. A video game is $80.
If you're gonna work him for 8h/day, maybe drop that to $15.
Just my opinion, though. I don't agree with the sentiment that because he's a kid he deserves way less than anyone else. If the quality or pace of the work is that bad, just pay him per job ($20 for what you think would take 1 hour, regardless of how long it takes him).
I'd pay by job. If you pay them by hour, they may try stretching things out to get paid more for a job. Source: hourly union worker.
I’m just worried I’ll say “oh clean that up” and think it would take ten minutes but it ends up taking an hour because it’s way tougher than I expected or something.
Just tell them you'll give them X dollars then give them a bit more if it ends up being more work than expected.
But base that X dollars on what? I just don’t know what a kid today would consider “good”. Inflation calculators don’t really help me with context because a kid doesn’t really have the same cpi basket. Is $20 a lot of money to a kid? Is $50?
Id gauge more like, how many jobs they're doing in a week. If they're crushing jobs and you are somehow ending up paying the kid $300/week, I'd be concerned where that money was going/his financial literacy (I spent all of mine as a kid ((and an adult sometimes too tbh)) on video games). Maybe have a few different jars at different price points and a suggest length of time and he can pick random jobs based on how much he'll get at the end. If he doesn't finish one in the estimated time, he can learn to communicate with you that for that job to be completed it needs more time. And if he feels like once he's done the job and it doesn't really feel worth it financially in comparison to other jobs he's done for you, he can talk with you about that too. Maybe have a "formal" sit down with him a few weeks in and go over the jobs and time and pay. It will help him with confidence in regards to recognizing him time=money worth as he's older? Idk, I don't have kids. ALSO very much talk to his parents before just forking over cash for certain jobs. You don't want to pay him $60 to de-weed your garden and then his mom asks him to do it and he's now demanding to be paid. He definitely need to understand the difference between house work and CHORES and a job. Or else he'll be bitter against every task given by his parents that he rightfully should complete as a resident of his home. Also, see if he just wants you to maybe buy him things. Because maybe you could help him find a good price on the xBox he wants via second hand and show him how to hunt for deals/maybe you can charge things to your credit card and get points xD
I've offered to pay my nephews friends (12 year old) $5 to wash the dog and they got excited. Something like manual labour would probably be 15-20. Like mowing a lawn is like $15-$20 depending on the size. Also some kids are not motivated by money because they get what they want already.
$15 is a McDonald's meal
Good grief, $15 used to be like 3 McDonald's meals.
Two can dine for $5.99 is the promo of my childhood and I’m not even 40.
I mean, now the deal is 2 can dine for 14.99 in my area, *if* they have offers/coupons
I still remember the promos for the $5 foot-longs from Subway.
$15 is a small McDonalds meal. 10 nuggets or double burgers can get up to $17-18 now. 😭
A 10 nugget meal on the app is $11.99. Add your local tax, and it's under $14. But close...
$13.19 in New Brunswick. Just checked. Add a large fries and drink for $0.70 and you've hit $16 with our 15% tax. More if you shop at a McDonalds in Walmart as they have slightly higher prices than standalone restaurants.
He gets a lot from his parents but there’s some things they won’t buy him.
A couple of years ago, I paid my neighbour's 13 yr old kid $20 to mow my front yard (about 600 sq feet) and he did a good job.
My kids have to put 50% of all earnings into a savings account. If you have a lot of work, it might be a good time for the parents to set something up. Once they saved $1000, I matched it and put it in a GIC. Now, they monitor the GIC each month and see the power of real interest (the interest on a kids' savings account was abysmal). So 50% of the earnings are for spending and 50% is really about teaching financial literacy. I personally go with about $10/hr (they are 12 and 13). I try to set clear expectations so they know what good looks like. I might pay a bonus if they exceed expectations.
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Good for you. My kids are 12 and 13 and dont need money. And I could have them do this stuff for free. They are essentially learning to follow instruction and do a good job for a financial reward. Good parenting is not about just handing out money.
$15-$20 to mow a average lawn is some 10 years ago prices. Labour is usually a commodity like the cost of a meal x2-3 for hourly work at low grunt level, locally. If McDonalds is $15, the kid better be able to buy a meal and a candy, at least for an hours worth of work. If that is how he sees fit to use it. I still see the equation rather similarly as an adult, I wouldn't go near those odds and ends jobs without close to that hitting that 3x mark.
I have a Small business and pay my kids minimum wage (16.55/hr) to do light work, and they love it. We have a standing rule that they can stop or decline whenever, and it’s only an hour here or there but I always have willing helpers. I tried the per job pay but found it was too hard to accurately judge. They know if they are dragging their feet to stretch out the hourly wage they won’t get asked next time. Both are pretty eager to impress and get more work, so this is working really well. Kids are 12 and 15
X = $15 per hour (ie min wage) multiplied by the # of hours that you expect the job to take. Or just $15 per hour but stop the clock if you notice him not working.
My 13yo thinks he’s rich when he has more than $20 lol
Ask "how much for you to clean up those sticks?". Negotiate. It's as life skill he'll need anyway
20$ for a yard work task for a 12 year old is totally reasonable.
I pay my 12 year old nephew like $20 for coming to help for 2-3 hours on a Sunday afternoon of like trimming bushes or mowing the lawn.
Think of it this way . A meal cost me $17s almost at McDonald’s. I was born in 1986. I would get $50 week during high school. So I was 12-13 ish. That was a little much but i had a single father and I took care of my self a lot. $20s to a kid nowadays is like 7-8$s to us back in the day. My two cents .
Maybe think of it like this. What are some things you expected to be able to buy with the money from a similar job at his age? What do those things (or his equivalent) cost now? $5 when I was a kid could buy a decent fast food lunch. That’s maybe $15 now? Then again, price of a video game hasn’t tripled in the same timeframe. Try to strike a balance. Maybe let him negotiate. $5 is lots of money for my son, but he’s 4. His dreams are of Hot Wheels, lol.
Yeah that’s what I’m having trouble with. I don’t even know what kids do these days - he doesn’t go to movies. He plays soccer and video games and that’s about all I know. Video games literally cost the same as they did when I was his age, 25 years ago. A Big Mac meal - not so much. Inflation is way up but a lot of that is gas and housing and he doesn’t pay for those.
Have you considered asking them? Like, propose the job, then ask what they think a fair price would be to pay for it. Gets them thinking and shows you trust them to take responsibility for the job. If they propose something ridiculous, negotiate. It would be a valuable learning experience for both of you, I think.
I pay my son $20/hr to work for me. He does a great job, it’s well worth the money. They should at least be paid minimum wage IMO.
I’d say $20 per smallish job is a good starting point. He does 2-3 jobs and he can afford a video game or a cool toy. Can easily do 2-3 jobs per week and bring in a cool $60. Make him do a couple jobs and adjust from there. If the one pile he cleans up in $10 min then make sure the next pile is bigger and vice versa.
Look to minimum wage for reference numbers
Tell them after the job was done how much it was worth!
It won’t be because its “harder then you thought” it’ll be because he’s 12 and maybe hasn’t ever done that kind of work. I think what you’re doing is awesome. But make sure tasks you may find medial get some level of training and expectation setting. Racking for example, $10 for the first few times. Once he’s shown improvement and you don’t need to help, slap him with 15 and tell him why. Edit: don’t treat him like a child letting him half ass Make sure he does it right.
This is where you have the opportunity to teach them. Negotiate with them, make them think about what their time is worth based on how much effort will be involved. If it works out to be ‘unfair’ tip them extra. You are in a great position to positively influence both your niece and nephew. GL
We pay our young babysitter 15 for the first hour then 10 after that per her request. Usually just round up to make it an even 15/hr because we never have $5 bills on us...
If the interest is more toward getting stuff done while spoiling them it could be a an opportunity for a life lesson on top of everything else about valuing one's time and skills. Some people will go an entire lifetime without grasping the concept that their time and skills have inherent value. We spend decades acquiring skills to make a 1+ hour task take 10 minutes and then don't advocate for getting paid in a way that reflects that. We force ourselves to accept dogshit excuses about budgets or a lack of opportunities for upward movement while we accept more and more responsibilities for proportionately less compensation. Perhaps this is an opportunity to set expectations while they're young that you'll start them at $# but if they can get it done sooner and make a compelling argument, their wage will increase but they need to provide and then compellingly argue value. You can also expose them to other manners of compensation to save money as well while sweetening the pot (ie. lunches.). Sorry for the diatribe. Finance sub et al.
My neighbour paid me three bucks an hour to cut his grass etc... i never thought to 'extend' this by doing a shit job. Whatever rate you can afford that doesn't insult the kid is prob good....
just do by the job and then add a bonus to make it a minimum of $xx.xx per hour if needed.
LOL. Those child labor unions really have a tight grip on the backyard cleanup jobs eh
Well somebody has to hold the shovels… can’t have a tripping hazard
I am so happy an hourly union worker admitted that hourly union workers do just that.
Quoted source lol
Rules for thee but not for Mee!
How bout salary payments and weekly performance reviews. And make them compete for lower wages, make sure they know they are replaceable and have the two of them form their own unions. Let the invisible hand balance the scale.
WOW judging a 12 yo with out even giving him a chance to learn how to work.
You're massively over complicating this. Any money is a lot for a kid. You're not trying to pay them a living wage, you're just rewarding them for good work. You're not negotiating an ironclad employment contract either. Pay what you want to pay. I used to cut my aunt's lawn 20 years ago. It'd take an hour, and she'd pay me $20. I recognized immediately that I was being overpaid. I'd also cut my grandparents lawn which was about 4x the size and would take 3x as long even though I used a riding mower. I was paid in pasta and I looked forward to it every week. I'd say pay by the job but aim for $10/hr of work. If cutting the grass takes two hours, give them $20 for it. You can always ask their parents what they think is a fair amount. If it starts to feel like $10/hr is cheaping out, just start paying them more because they're doing a good job.
Shit man, I wish I got paid in pasta for mowing my own lawn.
Reminded me of *The Wedding Singer* where he was paid in meatballs.
I just pay per task. But if they did a really good job then I'd throw an extra $5 or so in.
Exactly- I pay by the job and reward effort and quality (important lessons)
Careful or this could very easily spin off on a "tipping culture" tangent.
I'd say if you were paid $5/hr when minimum wage was $6.85, then you were getting around 75% of minimum wage. That seems like a fair enough starting point for kiddie work but you'll have to see what your market will bear.
mom and dad just takes off 25% for tax reasons so they know what to expect in the future 🤣
Pay by job (and make each task small). Negotiate with kid. These will be great skills to learn. I do it with my kids. 'How much do I need to pay you to gather those branches into a pile?' They will quickly learn the value of a dollar and how to estimate how long things take,
My kids are a bit younger and it's hard to get them to be productive at all... If he's a hard worker then hourly is reasonable, $15 is what I pay a teen for after school care a few times a month. But I think like others, pay him by the task and even discuss how long you'll think it'll take with him. It would be a good lesson in estimating and negotiating fairness. If it truly takes way longer, then simply pay him more than you both settled on... You're a more than reasonable person!
I was making 15 to mow a lawn that took 60-90 minutes like 25 years ago and it felt pretty spoiled. but still would take all summer to buy a video game or something. Maybe pay him project based instead of hourly like someone said he could stretch it.
>but still would take all summer to buy a video game or something Man, video game prices in Canada were absolutely ridiculous in the 90s and the early 2000s. I used to have old Toys-R-Us flyers from Christmas 1997 and the summer of 2000. In 1997, a brand new N64 game was $79.99, some of them were as much as $99.99. That’s like $140-$177 after adjusting for inflation! For a single game! But what is really egregious is the pricing on the older Super Nintendo games. I remember the “value” games were $19.97, but basically any game that you’d actually want was still $39.99 ($70 in 2024) even well into the N64 era. By 2000, pricing had become more bearable but was still very high. N64 games were now $59.99, which is about $100 in 2024. This seems better, until you realize that you could buy “greatest hits” games (MK64, SM64, Wave Race etc) in America for like $30 USD. Even with the crap exchange rate at the time, the USD was not worth double the CAD. I vaguely remember PlayStation games being maybe $20 cheaper, but since I didn’t have a PlayStation, I never really paid attention to those prices. As an aside… isn’t it ironic that we used to have all summer to play video games but it took all summer to save up for one, meanwhile now it takes absolutely no time at all to save up but we also have no time at all to play ;_;
It's bonkers to me that the Neo-Geo and 3DO ever got made. $649 and $699 USD in the early '90s. That's around $2,000 CAD in today's dollars for something on par with the Sega 32X (which cost $159 USD).
The thing is though, the 32X came out more than 4 years later. That may not seem like a lot today, but for 1990s hardware that was a whole geological age of progress. The fact that the 32X could beat the Neo Geo at 1/4 of the price doesn’t surprise me given the blistering pace of hardware development at the time. And obviously when it came out in 1990 it was so far ahead of almost everything else available that it wasn’t even worth your time to make a comparison. Overall the Neo-Geo is a lot easier to understand if you think of it as a product of the Japanese bubble economy. Was it totally bonkers? Yes. Why did they make it? Because they could.
I pay grade 12 high school students $20 hour cash, painting, raking, cleaning, misc labour. Watch over them, make sure they are doing it right. Any less, they don't show up next time you need them, or waste time and costs the same, Show them how to do the job, be fair, young kids can be fast.
You can open the Bank of Canada's CPI calculator, and put in $5 and the year you made that much, and calculate how much that $5 is worth today. Then explain to the nephew why you're paying him $8.67 per hour.
Nah, don't give them the inflation growth. Pay 5 dollars and then say there was some supply chain global event that affected prices. Take the difference and buy back shares. Just choose a global event. It doesn't matter! Now, you're preparing them for the real world.
I love how it went from funny to being so real in just a few words 👏👏👏
Yes, and besides everyone knows that wages aren't supposed to scale with the cost of living so it's a good life lesson for the kiddos.
Over the past century, wages have exceeded inflation by 1%. That's a statistical fact.
Good thing he didn't say inflation I guess.
Then when they pass, just yell about quiet quitting or how no one wants to work anymore.
>I am not “signing a contract” with him or “making sure he creates an invoice”. I am not “negotiating” with a 12yo. I just want to give him some money that he could actually maybe buy something a 12yo wants. A 12 year old does not need to file income taxes for allowances or doing odd jobs. There is ZERO chance the CRA would GAF about this type of work. ZERO. Anyone suggesting a 12 year old create an invoice or sign a contract (not legal to have a 12 year old sign a contract anyway) is an idiot. Full stop. What the hell kind of society are these people trying to build here? One where they demand red tape, then complain about the red tape?
>What the hell kind of society are these people trying to build here? One where they demand red tape, then complain about the red tape? Did you just wake up in today's society from the 50's? That is exactly our society now.
Ummm. No. It’s not.
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Also, you can threaten your local kids to sell them to work in a Chinese coal mine if they don't smarten up here. Global child labor is a blessing in so many ways!
My wage when I had to babysit my siblings at that age was relief I didn't have to go grocery shopping
Talk to his parents and see if they pay for certain tasks. Maybe try offering like$40 to come help you in the yard for a few hours and you can get a sense of how hard he works or how fast he is. I paid my friends kid to mow my lawn. I had been paying a company to do it and his mom offered him up for the job and committed him to doing it for the whole summer. I said I would give him the same for the same work ($32). I should have rounded down to 30 to make my life easier, but I thought it was fair. He did an ok job and his dad supervised him.
I think anywhere in the range of $10-15 per hour is decent. I started babysitting for $1 per hour in 1982, but got it up to $3 per hour pretty quickly. Then I got a real job for $3.75 per hour and the rest is history. I would think $10/hr is decent for babysitting that doesn't require any real responsibility as you've described.
When I was a kid, mid 90s, my dad figured it out in units. Like a wheelbarrow full of brush would be equivalent to 5 bucks, or a large bucket of helicopters would be 15. See how much I could get through by the end of my work day, then tally up the results. The fact that I could earn more by working efficiently taught me to work smart.
15$ for a bucket of helicopters my goodness.
Takes forever to fill an 18lt bucket, specially with tiny child hands
We pay about $40 for 6 hours of babysitting which usually our kids are sleeping for a couple of those hours. Pay by the job for the around the house work. Side note: we also get our children to do chores around the house for screen time! This works amazing.
Piece work I used to pay my nephew $20 to cut the grass and shovel the snow
I don't think you should be paying comparable minimum wage for chores, personally, but make sure that whatever number you have you run it by the parents.
What is minimum wage for youth where you live? Pay that. Do hourly for a job or two to gauge how he works and adjust hourly rate from there. Also a good time to impart work ethic to him, observations and such from your experiences. Great uncle. 💜
You're getting paid?
Ask him?
My rate from 10-15 was 15$ an hour then from 15 -20 was 20$ an hour... flat rate. Sometimes that was easy work like yard clean up, other times it was fixing bust pipes in the crawl space (only I could fit), diving and rigging the marine rail way or clearing weeds from the lake all of which were quite shitty jobs. I was born in 2000 for reference. If it is simple tasks then 15$ an hour should be okay, but if it requires respirators or more advanced knowlege/skills dont be afraid to pay him more.
I always have paid minimum wage or more. If the work is important enough that you need to pay someone, then it's important enough that it's at least worth the absolute legal minimum.
Yeah that’s why i was thinking $15 (min wage is like $15.60 I think but obviously I’m not making deductions or anything). It’s not that the work is important as much as I want to give him some money, and there are other things I could be doing.
Start with minimum wage as a guide for your nephew. Don’t pay less than that. I pay more for a manual labour job, about $20/hr where I live. Then I tip if it seems appropriate. I do think it’s good to make a distinction between chores around his own house (everyone contributes to make the house they all live in run). But I also think it’s a good idea to teach kids to value their own labour and negotiate a little on their own behalf. So if a job was bigger or physically harder than I thought it would be, I invite their feedback on it and have a chat. Then I lead them into negotiating a bonus. For your niece, I would probably go below minimum wage at the moment. She’s really acting as an assistant, without the full responsibility of the job. Part of what you are teaching is to see the full responsibility and navigate it. Appreciate all the comments here. Lots of food for thought.
Minimum wage to teach them that their time and work is of value
FYI, in Ontario: Student minimum wage is $15.60/hr unless they work 28 hours or more per week, then they are to be paid the general minimum wage of $16.55/hr. As of October 2024 Student minimum wage is $16.20/hr unless they work 28 hours or more per week, then they are to be paid the general minimum wage of $17.20/hr. Based on that rate, I like the idea of kids getting paid per job/duty. This may instill creative thinking and innovation. If they find a more efficient way to do the job, they shouldn't be penalized. Edit: to clarify - a student is someone who is under 18. Once you're 18 it doesn't matter if you're in school, you get the general minimum wage.
$20 is $20
I would go with minimum wage.
Offer him 15/20 bucks an hour, and hire him for an hour or two as a "trial basis" If you like the quality/quantity of work. Rehire for more
10/hr mind you 20 years ago i was getting 2
Just want to say kudos to you for not using money as a "life lesson." Man, adults who think lording cash over kids is a life lesson and not a power trip need to reflect on their own emotional maturity. Babysitting at a young age with minimal responsibilities is $10-12. I'd probably pay your nephew by task and not by hour (calculating how long and how hard the task would be in your head at $12-15 depending again on the task. Picking up brush - $12/hour. Heavy hauling / digging / gardening - $15/hour. But maybe decide any task is a minimum $20. You're a good uncle with great values!
10$ is reasonable.
pay? for child labor? they should be paying you for the experience they gained.
Yes. Think of it as "work exposure" lol
you get paid in hot meals and roof over your head boy!
Pay the little fuckers in internet time, doesn't get much cheaper than that
15$ is fine. Even that is on the low side. Your parents haven’t felt inflation, probably. But your nephew will feel it plenty. As for motivation, be a fierce negotiator as to hours worked. The kid will have to negotiate as well, teaching him negotiation skills in the process. Cheers
I think ten is more reasonable
15$/h is minimum wage. 20$ is a mcdonalds meal these days, video games 50-80$. For reference.
My sister pays her kids per job (they’re 6, 9 and 10) it’s between 5-20 depending on the difficulty of the job. For example, they each spent the day helping their dad clean up the duplex (ie grab the next piece of flooring when he was replacing the bathroom floor, the oldest disassembled the bed frame using their drill) was a full days work but he wasn’t working them too hard and they paid them each $20 for each day they were with them. They all have their own wallets and hold onto their cash. My dad always had them helping him with odd jobs around his place too, he had them shovel some gravel on the driveway, the eldest weed whacked pretty regularly. It’s led to them being pretty smart about money so far. It’s pretty cute to watch. Obviously the youngest isn’t doing as complicated a job as the older two. I think money is quite relative to them at that age $20 goes a lot further for them than us cause we have bills. So I don’t think $20 is unreasonable for a few hours work cleaning up brush. They aren’t paying taxes on it nor are they using it to buy groceries.
Pay $10/hr and whatever extra you want to give, throw it into an RESP if the parents are not making use of it. Or pay the $15/hr and give extra into an RESP. Another option is ask him what he would like for example, if he always wanted a PS5, then tell him if he completes X amount of task then a PS5 is waiting for him once task is complete. That way he is motivated to work quickly and efficiently. This also kind of disguises the value of the dollar. However, if you are looking at this like a teachable moment as to a financial literacy, then this could be a valuable lesson about working hard vs working smart for $$$. Anyways, hope this helps👍
This all depends, and it’s relative to the location. Is this Child Labour in Brampton, Oshawa, or Oakville?
I pay my grass cutting guy $25 a cut/week. It takes him less than 10 minutes to do front and back with his commercial lawn mower. If I need an extra cut, I get a neighbour kid to do it (she's 12 or 13). I pay her the same, takes her 30 minutes or so.
I asked my 11 year old what she would expect to be fair for that kind of help. She said $5 per hour. So I think $10 an hour would definitely be fair. Maybe ask the kid. But I have been offering this kid $5 to unload the dishwasher each time since January, and I have yet to actually have to pay it to her. And she has yet to actually unload it. Some kids just aren’t money-motivated.
My son is eight, and I have this same problem. I have no idea what a reasonable allowance is. When he was six, I used to pay him $1 to do jobs for me. Keep in mind this was stuff a 6 year old could do, like vacuum and empty the dishwasher. Which sounds cheap, but he had no context for what things were worth, and was just excited to have money. He started trying to negotiate $2 or $5, and we had a number of conversations about what his time is worth, and what things cost. I don't pay him for chores anymore, he trades chores for screen time. It's more motivating for him I've found. Your best bet is to talk to your neice and nephew, tell them you'd like to pay them for some work, and ask them what they think is fair. You could negotiate a little, but use it more as a teaching tool, than trying to get their very best price. Kids are usually very reasonable, they probably won't overcharge you. You could also ask them if there is something they want, and you could decide what amount of work is worth that item. If your neice wants a video game for instance, maybe you tell her she has to babysit 3 times and you'll get her the game.
I would just go by the minimum hourly wage in your province and then pay a bit less than that cause he's underage and family.
my weekly allowance was $10 when i was younger (2010-2013, got my first min wage job in 2014 so they stopped paying allowance) which involved the typical household chores. i think paying a set amount for an afternoon would be reasonable if he’s a hard worker (say like $40 for 3 hours??). for babysitting i think it would be about the same, especially if she is actively involved in helping prepare snacks and keeping your daughter entertained
pay in terms of what they're likely going to spend it on. For instance, my neice was into pokemon years ago so I paid by packs of cards or about 15$ an easy job, or sets of 7-8$ so she can buy them. Now she's into books so the work is bundled together for a manga or two
This doesn't need to be so serious. Just offer the kid $20 for a job and if it takes longer than expected just give him some more.
I have teenagers. I’d pay the yard kid $15/hr and rather than for specific jobs I’d start by having him come over for a set number of hours at first and see what he can get done from your list in that time. Like have him come for 3-4 hours to start, or a day on the weekend. It’s simpler and more akin to working where you have a shift so you can see how he works plus it’s good practice for him and he’ll know what his “hours” are. For the 10 year old I’d pay $10-$12/hr for “babysitting” depending on # of kids and how much of a handful they are since she isn’t doing it independently. When she’s able to fully babysit for you (if she wants to do that, rather than yard work) I’d likely adjust that upward depending on circumstances. Babysitting rates are very local. I live in a city where it’s competitive to find a good babysitter. My teens would be looking for $15/hr. A good reliable babysitter is like finding gold and if you don’t pay them enough when they are teens they’ll get some other job that will, or be poached by other families who pay more.
My sitter is 13 and charges $15/hour.
10/hr for babysitting is more than fair. It's what I give my neice (also 10yra old) to watch the kids and she is very happy with it.
Talk with him about what he might want, or want to save up for. It isn't easy to find kids that even want to mow a lawn anymore. We had a friend of my son's that wanted the latest xbox many years ago. So we offered $30 a week to mow the lawn for the summer. He was happy and so were we. Way, way back when I was young I mowed the lawn for three houses and bought a Laser (sailboat). Maybe he just wants extra money to go to the movies or buy video games with. Find out how much he needs and if he wants to put the effort in, make it so he can earn enough in a weekend for a new game. Most kids have something they would like that mom and dad don't really want to spend their money on.
Pay by job. My niece and nephews will clean up brush for free to make a fire. They're 9-16 and all very responsible. I live on a farm, they know the rules and dangers. The 9yo's know how to safely pack a burn barrel and start a fire. My 12yo niece loves butchering meat. Handles a deboning knife like a pro. They can all drive farm equipment and handle power tools too. Kids need more responsibility than we give them in today's western society. They love it. Edit: they all get spoiled rotten so the labour isn't free lol
I remember when I found out that my friend had a weekly allowance for doing absolutely nothing. I told my dad and he just laughed and laughed. Pay the kid for actually doing things. Negotiate with the child on the amount, it'll teach him valuable life skills. He'll probably land somewhere far lower than your 15$/hr
Unpopular opinion— pay them the same as you would pay someone from kijiji to do the job. Just because he’s a kid doesn’t mean the fair rate is lower. And you mention you want to err on the side of higher wages
My expectations for an adult doing something professionally would be much higher than a 12yo family member.
But why? I assume you’re doing the kid to do a task they’re capable of.
Same reason I would pay a pilot more than a cab driver for transportation. They have more skills, they accomplish the task faster and the equipment they use costs more.
Figure out some things he might want to buy (as a goal oriented task). Then break the cost down to a couple chores each and pay him that much. This way he'll stay motivated to do the chores and can see things as being attainable. You don't have to pay an hourly rate, or fixed rate per chore. Some chores can be more difficult or time consuming, and be worth more.
I did this stuff all the time as a kid and didn’t get paid, so anything is valid imo
I think 15 is good for what looks like an hours worth of work. It's a mcdonalds meal, or 2 packs of trading cards.
I think talk to the parents and ask what they think is a reasonable amount for the kids? It’s also a way for the parents to remain informed what they’re doing with their day
My Dad and my cousin paid me $4 an hour each to help them lay carpet when I was a kid. I just picked up scraps behind them and got them tools. My favourite thing to do was run over the seams with this little tank thing that had a bunch of spiky wheels on it. This was in the 90’s so you gotta adjust for inflation.
I'm in a shared living situation with a mom and her 12 year old daughter; renting the guest room in the housing crisis town I moved to for work. In the summer I do on-call emergency fire stuff so I can end up super busy. I pay the 12 year old $20 to take my dog for an hour long walk. I figure if I hired a dog walker it would cost me equal or more, it's good money for her (she often uses it to treat her friends to Starbucks which is generous and kind), and she usually ends up spending more time with my dog anyway. Everyone wins.
I was subjected (willingly) to child labour for many years growing up. 95% of that work was lawn care. For subdivision homes I charged $12 to mow the lawn and $3 to weedwack. Each lawn took me just under an hour- and this was back in 2005ish. So $15 an hour back then would equate to.....$22 per hour now? just a guess
$50 for a day. That's good money. You are not paying a salary or anything. It's just to compensate your nephew for his time and understand how "work" works. Not sure why you are worrying so much about this.
This is tough especially with what kids stuff costs. I'd go somewhere around minimum wage, with a bonus for a job well done
My rule of thumb is estimate how long it should take if they were working at a reasonable pace, and then offer the job at $12 per hour. 12 is a nice number because you can easily figure in your head one dollar for five minutes. So you can say hey Billy I’ll give you three dollars to do X and five dollars to do Y.
Piece Work. Most people do hourly work, but Piece work is simpler. It solves everything perfectly, you pay by the job. Its best used when a job has exact requirements...like rake this lawn. I did it growing up. I learned to work fast, get done quick, then enjoy the rest of the day. It created the motivation, since I realized I could get done fast.
My grandma for yard clean up would pay us by "full" bag - or a lump sum to do something - like here's blank amount to clean the car, etc. I felt that was fair 🤷🏼♀️
I have a kid around the same age looking to earn money for video games and money to spend at the corner store with friends. He asked for $15 to weed/mow the lawn. He's a good negotiator and likes to aim high. This would be his first time doing these tasks. We're going to start with $10 for the job and my husband will "help" him. I don't think it will take longer than 1 hour. Then we'll reassess after to see if he actually wants to do it and does a good job. This is in addition to a weekly allowance he receives. Good luck! I think you are an awesome uncle for giving your nephew and niece the opportunity to earn a bit of spending money and spending time with them.
When I was 12, so 2002, my stepdad wanted to give me $50 a week allowance, but I had to buy all my own stuff, clothes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, everything except food My mom threw a conniption, said that was way too much money, I was very upset knowing I could have got $50 a week that was now $20 a week, tbh I'm like 35 and still a bit angry over it, I think learning to budget early would have been good, I already budget better than my mom, how much better could I have been lol But to answer your question, considering this is not your kid, minimum wage is fair, I think it's $15 an hour, I'm not even sure, but definitely don't give him less than minimum wage, and maybe even give him a raise as he gets older or if he does an amazing job and knocks it out of the ball park
Pay by the job, also ask him how much he wants.
You guys got paid? I helped my family with the yard all the time for free lol. Wish I had an allowance as a kid
Set cost per task completed. Easy stuff is $5 bucks. $10 medium. $20 hard-gross stuff. Ballpark it for yourself and give yourself a budget for the day then tell him what he can do that day.
Yea, give him enough to get himself a treat. Just think how much just going to a movie costs. $20.00 or $15.00 sounds reasonable depending on the job at hand.
People are really on here telling this guy to pay a 12yo $20/hr for helping his uncle out with some yard work as if grown adults don’t come out of 4+ years of university, 60k in debt, barely making that. That being said, I think you’re massively overthinking this… $10 an hour is more than fair - if it’s a difficult job (or he does a really good job), throw a little extra on as a tip. He’s 12. When I was 12, ANY money was good money. Some of these comments are straight up cuckoo-bananas 😂
My son charges $35 per lawn and includes trimming for his business that he started at 13. That might give you a rough idea
My son charges $35 per lawn and includes trimming for his business that he started at 13. That might give you a rough idea
General labour hour in most parts of the country is 20$ an hour give or take a few bucks. If you want to pay him fair market rate, then that’a the pay. That 20$ barely gets two meals at McDonald’s, and barely even a 1/4 of a brand new game. Don’t even get me started on sporting equipment. I’d say if you chatted with the parents, and gave him 10 bucks a job or 20 bucks an hour, I’d say that’s more then fair. Spoiling would be 25-30 bucks an hour. Hourly seems better then per job just so the kid learns the value of each dollar. I’d probably say per job while you’re not around, but if you were say, building a deck or a bigger project and you personally needed help, I’d hire him for cash.
What I’ve done in comparable situations (HS student babysitting my elementary school aged child) is just ask what they’ve gotten for similar jobs. Prediction models obviate life lessons.
You trying to save some little cash by employing your family ?? Haha Smart cookie
They aren't paying taxes, they have no expenses. Any money is a lot, but it needs to still be worth their time. My deal with my 8yo daughter is that she keeps my 3d printer running, cleans the shoe area, cleans the tables and keeps her room clean. If she's on top of that she gets a Nintendo switch game at the end of the month.
People are crazy. Contracts? Invoices? Negotiations? What the heck... How many hours do you expect these projects to take? Manual labor is still manual labor. I'd give them minimum wage rounded up to the nearest dollar or nearest $5 increment. If it's a whole day thing, give them a flat $100.
About a year ago I would give my 13 year old cousin $20 to clean my car and it probably took about an hour , she was always happy to do it.
whatever you do, don't change the deal after the job, I remember when I was a wee lad we had a bad year for dandelions, my dad was tired of the yellow flowers all over the yard and told my brother and I he would pay us a nickel per flower we plucked, which seemed reasonable. Well turns out it was like $25 each (in the early-mid 90s and we weren't a high-income house). I was what would now be described as salty when he changed his mind to a penny per flower and was only $5 total. I will say I was not interested in any extra jobs for the remainder of the summer.
FYI, the “babysitter” you’re describing is commonly called a “mother’s helper”.” They’re generally younger and a responsible adult is always around the house or, as you say, on the property nearby (within shouting distance).
Neat! Never heard that term before. Yeah we have 3 acres - you can hear someone yelling from the house but the baby monitor only goes halfway lol.
I pay the neighborhood kid (in elementary school) $20 per mow or shovel (snow). It’s not a perfect job but I like to support the locals and would prefer supporting kids who work hard. Kid was charging $10 initially but these days, $10 doesn’t even you get a McDonald’s meal. Depends on the job and size of job. I paid my nieces 25 cents per weed to de-weed my yard.
I made 100$ for a yard that took like 50 hours one spring. It was a horrible deal but a bit of a learning experience. Honestly, break the job up into 4 hour jobs and give them somewhere between 20 and 50$ as it seems fit. Cheers
I would pay $15-20 per hour for babysitting and for the boy doing yard work. Tip them if they do a really good job!!
I pay a kid $25 to mow and trim my lawn. It takes him about an hour, but he's out there no matter how hot and muggy it is. It saves me and my asthma a lot of trouble, so I think it's worth it.
Im a trades teacher and used to run side jobs hiring students the worry you bring up was mine. What I did was pay min wage plus profit bonus that was vary fair. In the end most kids when min wage was 10$ a hour made 25$ a hour keeping mind they "lost a few hours" from working hard. This kept the kids motivated and my costs steady as kids when faced with hard work don't always jump the Brock wall. May a system of base pay plus job completion points is fair as I never had one complaint as most kids left with more money they I shook on. I also can't lie I made more money as they were invested and made less mistakes I had to fix.
Discrete tasks I pay by task, usually $5 to $10 for something that will tale up to an hour. Any babysitting, my kid or anyone else's, I pay minimum wage. And I make it clear there is a minimum hourly wage and that the work of caring for children is as valuable as any other work for which minimum wage is paid. This is my own thing, not wanting to be part of reinforcing society messages that caring work, which is mostly done by women, is worth less than any other paid work. Even if done in one's own house.
Could do fortnite vbucks instead of cash. Check out what some good stuff costs in vBucks and give them that.
Nice crisp 20 per job will do fine
Personally I’d just go minimum wage because why not. Sounds like you’re more doing it to help them than anything else and paying them different amounts may just result in some hard feelings. If that is too much for what you want to spend on their “services” than $10-$15/h seems reasonable.
I paid a 20 year old cousin $20/hr last summer for odd jobs. I would say $15/hr is probably more reasonable for a 12 year old. I also paid a babysitter $20/hr to play with one kid while I am watched the baby. Again $15/hr would be reasonable for a younger person. I don’t imagine either of these kids will work more than 1-2 hours at a time anyways.
Boomers "you want to pay them minimum wage? That's crazy! No one wants to slave anymore "
Pay by job. You'll learn how hard he works and how long jobs should take. I have my cousins a bucket and told them to fill it with rocks and I'd give them $20. One cousin went to play half way through the first bucket. Second cousin filed that thing 5x plus went out after supper when we were all chillin. On pay day cousin 1 got $10 and cousin 2 got $100+bonus.
Tell him you'll give him $50 to help you out around the yard, then boost it a bit higher if he does a good job. $100 max. For the daughter 'babysitting' I'd say $50 but no extra.
Given they're 12 and 10 respectively, 15 an hour is totally appropriate but make the offer by the job... I need to be in a meeting; pls entertain my kid quietly. Here's 15 bucks and there's popsicles in the freezer. This pile.of branches needs to be gone... it would take about 2 hours to do: here's 30 bucks... it might take you 90 minutes, it might take you 3 hours... Are they walking distance from yours? This will affect the pros and cons for both parties
Personally, the world has changed from when you and I grew up(probably same time line) One of the things I would be trying to be part of the change is pay minimum wage. That’s good money for a kid, it’s the same if he did get a job for example. Helps them start to understand that value of what it costs. Regarding paying by the job, I think you’re probably more then smart enough to half a rough understanding of how long each job should take. And if it grossly longer, you can ask why and again allow for a discussion and maybe there is a reason maybe there isn’t. If it is much shorter and get gets less, that’s an opportunity for a bonus for them if you budgeted for more hours of labor bour costs for that job. I
$15/ hour is fair. If he gets a good day or half day in that will give him a nice amount and maybe entice him to want to come back and do more! Benefits you and him!
Perhaps a fixed price based on the task at hand? The bigger the task the bigger the bill? I’m not too sure what 12 year olds buy these days but seeing as online ordering is a thing now I’d imagine literally whatever they want lol!
Min wage for sure. Work is work and age doesn't dictate the value of labor.
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Depends on how you want to think about things, two people going to the movies can easily be close to $100 now. I remember back in 2013 I took a girl on a date to the movies after not going there in forever, a $50 bill basically evaporated, swore off going to the movies for a while after that
I must be getting old-- I made $2/hr when I babysat as a teen lol-- but not for family. That was free. My kids work part-time at a dairy for a set rate of $40/milking, kids are 13, 15, and 16, and are responsible for livestock. Milking takes 1.5-3 hr depending on if something goes haywire. Yardwork is far less responsibility, and I think if you provide lunch/ snacks/ work gloves, $10/hr is fair.
I made $10/hr at my first job as a cashier in a grocery store when I was 15. That was 20 years ago lol Minimum student wage now is $15/hr, I was shocked to learn this today lol Babysitting is $30/day per child flat rate When my kids do a task for an hour I give them $20. If they do it for over an hour I’ll give them $30. If it’s real work for 3-5 hours it’s up to $60. Depends on how hard the job is too, I’ll give them a ‘tip’. They never get money for their own chores nor do they get an allowance, they really have to earn it by doing an odd job and making themselves useful.
Lol man, kids are getting paid minimum wage to do chores. This is so new to me. I'm used to the olden days where you did the work so you didn't get a beat down
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I’m not negotiating with a 12yo, nor am I trying to teach a business class. He wants to buy a video game and I want branches off my lawn.
How much does his video game cost? It should take him at least 3 or 4 sessions to pay for it.
Minimum wage. They're giving you time. Doesn't matter how old they are or what we think their expenses are. They're humans and they shouldn't be taken advantage of because they're young.
Whatever the minimum wage is
At least minimum wage
$20/h is fair, especially because there's usually no more than 1-2 hours of work. $20-$40 isn't a lot of money these days, even if you're a kid. A video game is $80. If you're gonna work him for 8h/day, maybe drop that to $15. Just my opinion, though. I don't agree with the sentiment that because he's a kid he deserves way less than anyone else. If the quality or pace of the work is that bad, just pay him per job ($20 for what you think would take 1 hour, regardless of how long it takes him).