Getting paid for doing your chores is a great way for kids to learn the value of money. And more and more parents say they are giving their kids an allowance, with 68% of parents saying they pay their child an allowance, according to the latest finding from the Finder Consumer Confidence Index.
Parents who give their kids an allowance pay an average of $35 a week for helping out around the house, which comes to about $1,830 annually. That means the 68% of parents paying allowances, roughly 46 million parents, give their kids about $85 billion a year in pocket money.
The amount parents are giving their kids is also down a little. Back in Q2 2023, the average amount parents said they were giving their kids was $42. Flash forward to Q1 2023 and that figure sits at $35.
While you might assume that only children would get more than kids with siblings, parents with two kids actually give the most on average at $42 per child.
When asked who’s responsible for paying their kid’s allowance, the majority say the responsibility falls on them (71%), 17% say they share the responsibility and 11% say it’s on their partner.
Roughly 78% of men say they give their kids an allowance, compared to 62% of women.
However, dads ($41) only give slightly more pocket money than moms ($31) a week.
Men are more likely to say they are responsible for paying their kid’s allowance (80%) compared to women (65%).
Almost three-quarters (71%) of millennial parents say they’re giving their kid an allowance, slightly higher than boomers (70%) and Gen Z (69%).
Gen Z give their kids the most pocket money at $37, compared to boomers at $14.
Those in the Northeast are the most likely to pay their kids an allowance at 73%, compared to just 65% in the Midwest.
Parents in the West say they give their children $43 a week for doing their chores, compared to $29 for kids squirreling away their savings in the South.
It looks like not even pocket money is able to escape inflation, with 50% of parents saying they are giving their child more allowance than 12 months ago. About 1 in 7 (14%) say they are paying their kids less than a year ago and a touch over a third (37%) are paying the same.
For those parents who are paying their kids more, the majority of parents (76%) say they increased their kid’s allowance with age, while 12% say inflation was a factor.
Roughly 53% of men say they’re paying their kids more now than a year ago, compared to 47% of women who say the same.
About half of gen X (48%), millennials (51%) and Gen Z parents (52%) say they’re giving their kids a larger allowance than 12 months ago, compared to 14% of boomer parents.
Roughly two-thirds (63%) of those in the Northeast are paying their kids more today than they were 12 months ago.
For kids receiving an allowance, the the largest segment (42%) say they put the money into a savings account, while a third spend it on clothes or entertainment (35%).
Related: Best debit cards for kids and teens
For those kids holding onto their allowance, a standard savings account is the most common place to store it at 66%, with 31% saying their child has a checking account.
A little over two-fifths (41%) of parents say their child has a bank account linked to theirs, while 31% of kids have their own account.
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