How much to pay kids for working?

Pinzy

My 10yo nephew wants to boost his income! He has asked if he can help out with the horses of a family friend. He's helped to muck out a couple of times, and loves it, wants to do more and obviously his business mind has kicked in! :T

What's the going rate for paying kids to work these days though?

bingo_bango

I'd suggest starting here - https://www.gov.uk/child-employment, but it doesn't appear that there is a legal minimum wage to worry about. However, the 10 year old can't work yet. Children over the age of 13 can take part time paid employment, but the stable owner would be committing an offence if they offer any form of employment to someone younger than that, regardless of whether or not the child wants to do it.

As it's a family friend and the lad seems keen, I'd just let him take the experience and if the owner decided to 'gift' him something at the end, then I would treat it as a nice gesture.

Asking more questions could be more hassle than it's worth.

Pinzy

Thanks for that, interesting info.

Kayalana99

I'd want to pay anyone working at least £5 an hour regardless of age but saying that I had my 12 year old sister do a bit of work for me last year and she was useless....lol so I gave her £3 an hour and she was sooo happy with it...I was a bit speechless, I would probally say £3 an hour is a decent rate for that age that they will be happy with but that said if he is working as hard as an adult could I certainly would at least want to pay him £5...but that's unlikey that he will.

lessonlearned

When my sons were around That age and below minimum working age I used to "employ" them in the summer holidays. Basically it would be a project for the summer holidays, usually some diy project round the house. Rather than pay them an hourly rate I pAid them for the job, so they could go at their own pace and not get overtired.

Re mucking out stables, my niece did this when she was under age and not officially able to,work. The owner, a family friend, allowed her to,ride whenever she wanted and then gave her occasional gifts, sometimes money, sometimes a pair of jodhpurs or similar.

It's a shame when youngsters are desperate to work but are unable to. As long as they are not forced or exploited in any way I think they should. A couple of hours at the stables at the weekend should be ok, it won't over tax them or interfere with either sleep or schoolwork.

Way back when I was young girl - a looooong time ago - i had a job working Saturday mornings as a "shampoo girl" in a hairdressers. I was under min age but they didn't bothet so much in those days. I was just paid "out of the till". I loved it, a bit of cash and lots of trendy hairstyles for free.