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.
Men pay their kids more on average for doing their chores
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%).
Gen Z paying the most for chores
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.
Kids in the Northeast earn the most money for doing their chores
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.
Most parents have upped how much they give their kids
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.
More men increasing their kids’ allowance
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.
Younger generations increasing allowance for their kids
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.
The Northeast home to the most parents upping their kids allowance
Roughly two-thirds (63%) of those in the Northeast are paying their kids more today than they were 12 months ago.
What are kids doing with their money?
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%).
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.
How are your kids banked?
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.
The Finder Consumer Confidence Index is an ongoing quarterly survey that captures the perceptions of a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 American adults and asks questions related to household finances. Results were collected between October 2022 and October 2023.
Of those surveyed, 6,262 were parents, with 3,454 having children under the age of 18.
Spending figures were calculated by taking the number of parents in the US, which according to the 2020 US Census, came in at roughly 63 million, and multiplying the weekly spend to get the yearly total ($704) and multiplying that against the percentage of adults that said they give their children an allowance.
We define generations by the age of participants at the time of the survey:
Gen Z — any adults born post-1997
Millennials — 1981-1996
Gen X — 1965-1980
Baby boomers — anyone born pre-1964
We define geographical regions according to the divisions of the US Census Bureau.
The original analysis looked at pocket money given to all children. This updated analysis tracks pocket money given to children under the age of 18.
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Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).
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