Should You Pay Your Kids for Chores? What Parents and Research Say

Experts disagree, and both sides make reasonable points. Ramsey Solutions says paid jobs, which it calls commissioned chores, should be separate from routine family chores that kids do because they live in the household ¹. The University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension says not to tie an allowance to chores, good behavior or grades, and to use the allowance to teach money decisions ³.

Some university advice sits in between. The University of Arizona's Life & Work Connections office suggests a compromise: children are expected to do a few weekly duties, such as making their beds, they receive a set amount of money, and they can do extra chores for additional money ⁸.

Fox 5 New York reported in March 2025 that Cleveland Clinic child psychologist Dr. Kate Eshleman sees either paying or expecting help as part of family life as workable, and that consistency and communication matter most ⁷. The report also says that doing a job for its own sake is the ideal, while younger children may benefit from outside rewards to build habits ⁷.

So the useful question is not whether money is good or bad. It is which jobs, if any, you want to attach money to, and what you want your child to learn from it.

Most US families give an allowance. In a 2025 Wells Fargo survey of 1,587 parents with children ages 5 to 17, conducted by Ipsos, 71% gave one ⁹. The published results do not mention chores.

The most recent US surveys we could find that ask whether the allowance must be earned are a few years old. In T. Rowe Price's 2021 Parents, Kids & Money Survey of 2,023 parents of kids ages 8 to 14, 59% said they give an allowance their child has to earn, 16% said they give one their child does not have to earn, and 25% said they give no allowance ⁴⁵. In a 2019 poll by The Harris Poll for the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), eight in ten parents said their children were required to do at least some chores in exchange for their allowance ¹⁰.

Parents also say what they want the money to teach. In the same T. Rowe Price survey, 1,509 parents who give an allowance were asked why. Of those, 59% chose 'I want my children to understand the meaning of working for money' and 35% chose 'I want to teach my child how to manage money' ⁴. In the 2025 Wells Fargo survey, 85% of parents said they believe giving kids an allowance helps them learn about spending ⁹.

A major piece of research is a 1999 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin by Edward Deci, Richard Koestner and Richard Ryan ⁶. A meta-analysis combines the results of many experiments. This one covered 128 studies and found that rewards given for doing an activity, finishing it or doing it well tended to reduce people's later interest in doing it freely ⁶. It also found that tangible rewards tended to be more harmful for children than for college students ⁶.

There are limits to what this tells a parent. The main analysis included only activities that people found at least neutral to interesting, because the question was about interest that already exists ⁶. Most chores are not activities children are eager to do, so there may be little interest to lose. The authors also describe other researchers who reached different conclusions from earlier meta-analyses, so the size of the effect has been debated ⁶. And these were experiments, not studies of pocket money.

In our editors' view, the careful reading is this: if your child already enjoys a job, such as feeding the dog, think twice before attaching a price to it. For jobs nobody enjoys, pay is less likely to change how your child feels about them, though it may change how your child thinks about helping the family.

Most families end up with one of three setups. None is required, and families often change as children grow.

The table is our editors' summary of the options described by the sources in this guide ^12381112. It is not a ranking.

Ramsey Solutions draws the line between routine chores, which kids do because they are part of the family, and commissioned chores, which are paid jobs such as washing cars or mowing the lawn ¹. NDSU Extension, part of North Dakota State University, makes a similar suggestion: paying for all household chores is not considered a good idea, but parents may want to pay for extra jobs such as cleaning the car, weeding the garden or washing windows ².

These are examples from the sources and our editors' suggestions, not rules. Your family decides where the line sits. What matters is that your child can tell which side a job is on before they start.

Set the price of each paid job before your child starts. A University of Wisconsin-Extension parent guide suggests making a chart of jobs that suit your child's age and deciding as a family how much each job is worth ¹². In Ramsey Solutions' sample list, bigger jobs pay more: $10 to wash cars, compared with 75 cents to take out the trash ¹.

Paid jobs can also teach work habits. NDSU Extension says that when parents hire preteens for extra jobs, they can set good work standards and habits, such as arriving on time and cleaning up afterward ².

• Write the list of paid jobs and the amount for each on paper. Put it where your child can see it.
• Pay on the same day each week so money becomes predictable.
• Decide in advance what happens if a job is done badly or not done. Agree it before it happens.
• Keep unpaid duties off the price list, so your child does not start asking what each task is worth.

This is the main weakness of tying pay to chores. The University of Arizona's Life & Work Connections office warns that children may decide they do not need the reward and stop doing the chore ⁸. In our editors' view, that is a good reason to keep a short list of unpaid duties that never depend on money.

It can also be a useful moment. Ask what your child is saving for. A visible savings goal gives paid jobs a reason that has nothing to do with pleasing you.

Children can start helping with chores as early as 2 to 3 years old, according to the University of Arizona's Life & Work Connections office ⁸. Younger children may need outside rewards to build a habit, as Fox 5 New York reported from its interview with Dr. Eshleman ⁷. A sticker chart or a small, same-day payment can work for a 6-year-old. A teenager can handle a bigger job list, a monthly view and a negotiated price.

The sticker chart and the teenager's job list are our editors' suggestions, not research findings. Whatever the age, the goal is the same: a plan your child understands and you can stick to.

Babalata is a money-habits app for US families with kids ages 6 to 18. It is available on the App Store and Google Play in the United States only. Babalata has no debit card and no bank account. Parents keep the real money.

Kids set savings goals and practice short Money Gym lessons with Babuddy, Babalata's money coach character. Parents can track allowance, get a weekly family report with conversation starters and assign lessons. Children under 13 need a parent's approval before they can use the app. You can use any of the setups in this guide with or without an app.