Kids’ pocket money outstrips parents’ wage increases
22 Aug 2015
Kids have done better than their parent as regards "wage" growth, a 20-year survey of pocket money revealed.
The survey went on to say parents now spent £6.20 on weekly allowances.
However, they were still getting paid 5p less than last year - and £2.17 less than before the recession – with austerity hitting the playroom.
While parents had seen average pay rise by 193 per cent since the late 1980s, children's pocket money had risen from £1.13 a week to £6.20 – an increase of 448 per cent.
According to official data, adult pay was now £488 on average.
So, if parent's earnings had kept up the same wage growth as pocket money, this wage would be £806 today, on the basis of the average weekly wages recorded by the Office for National Statistics.
However, pocket money today was relatively low compared to the boom years, when kids aged between eight and 15 made £8.37 per week in 2005.
Over a thousand children were asked to reveal their allowances each year by Halifax bank, which had conducted the research since 1987.
According to most of the children surveyed, all aged between eight and 15, they had to complete household chores in order to earn their allowances, which included bedroom tidying, washing up and doing their homework.
Had the increase in pocket money been in line with parents' income, the typical weekly allowance would now be just £3.31 – half the actual amount
According to the survey, typical pocket money for eight to 15 year olds was 15p less in 2015 than in 2014, when it was a more generous £6.35 and 2013 when it was £6.50.
According to commentators, the dip could reflect sluggish wage growth in recent years.
In 2005, three years before the recession, pocket money typically peaked at £8.37 a week, between 2007 and 2008 it dropped sharply from £8.01 to £6.13 and kept falling until 2011.
According to the annual survey of 1,200 children 59 per cent of youngsters were now expected to work in return for their weekly allowance.
According to one in four children who said they worked for their money, homework counted as one of their jobs.
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