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Making Money As A 13-Year-Old: A Complete Guide

Watching your child grow up is one of the best experiences in the world. Seeing that little person that you’ve helped grow and move through the different stages of life is totally priceless.

One of the biggest steps in your child’s life is when they turn from a tween to a teen.

Making Money as a 13-Year-Old

This stage in life is often overlooked, but it is at this stage in life when your child first starts to search for independence.

Often, when your child turns 13, they will start to be interested in earning their own money so that they can spend it on things that they want, or save it for the future.

This stage is critical to your child’s development, so supporting your child to start making money at this age (if this is something that they are interested in) is critical.

But what can your child do to make money at this age? That’s a good question!

In this complete guide, we’ll be taking a look at the different things that your 13-year-old could do to make their own money. So if you want to find out more, keep on reading!

Are You Allowed To Work At Age 13?

Making money as a 13-year-old can be really tricky. At this age you are legally too young to work most jobs as the Federal Labor Laws restrict anybody from working before the age of 16.

When you are 14/15, you can sometimes get a few hours of official work in some industries, but at age 13 your options are few and far between. This can be incredibly frustrating for your 13-year-old.

That being said, there are a couple of jobs that you can legally work at the age of 13.

These jobs do have restrictions on the number of hours that your child will be able to work for. But they will be legally above board.

Jobs that your child can legally do at the age of 13 include:

Making Money as a 13-Year-Old

Delivering Newspapers

Newspaper rounds have been a way for young teens to make money for a very long time. From age 12, children are able to make money delivering newspapers either by foot or by bicycle.

Family Business

If you have a family business, then you can legally hire your child to work with you at any age. While hours will be restricted, you can hire your child to work as part of your family business at any age.

The only restriction is that your family business cannot include a hazardous work environment.

Entertainment

Child-stars have been a thing for a very long time in Hollywood, and the entertainment industry is still one of the few areas of work that your child can enter at pretty much any age.

There are lots of rules and regulations in the entertainment business to protect children.

So, your child could take on a position as a singer or actor in TV shows, films, on the stage and in commercials at age 13.

The restrictions on the number of hours that a young teenager can work not only impact the hours that they can work, but when they can work too.

Young teenagers are not allowed to be employed between 7pm and 7am. Likewise, they are not allowed to be employed during hours when they should be in school.

Children in their early teens can only work a maximum of 3 hours a day on a school day (see also “10 After School Activities For Bored Teens“) and a maximum of 18 hours a week during term time.

On non-school days, the maximum number of hours that a teenager can work is 8 hours a day, and on non-school weeks, they can work a maximum of 40 hours a week.

Generally, for 13-year-olds, employers will keep working hours well below these restrictions.

How To Find Work At Age 13

Due to the restrictions placed on working before the age of 16, finding work as a 13-year-old can be pretty tricky.

That being said, finding jobs as an adult can often be pretty difficult too. So it comes as no surprise that the best methods for finding a job as a 13-year-old are the same methods best used for finding work as an adult.

You’ve probably heard people say “it’s all about whom you know” when referring to employment, and unfortunately this really is the case.

Often, it is your contacts that will have the largest influence on you being successful in your job search, and the same principle will apply to your 13-year-old.

But, thankfully, when you are 13 years old, you are normally focused on getting a job and less focused on what that job entails.

Speak to your family and friends and see if they have any work that your 13-year-old could help out with.

These positions don’t necessarily need to be in official forms of employment, they could instead involve doing odd jobs.

Your Great Aunt might need help cleaning her garden, or your friend’s Mother-in-Law might be willing to pay your child a small amount of money to water their flowers.

The list of jobs that your friends and family might have available for your child is likely very large, so this is a sure-fire way to get your child some money in return for a few hours of work.

If your child gets a lot of success using this method, then this might be enough to sustain them. But if you are struggling to find potential jobs for your child, then it may be worth advertising your child’s services.

Through working for your friends and family, your child will be able to find little odd jobs that they are good at doing.

With this knowledge, you can print fliers and hand them out in your local area. This is a good way to get more work for your child.

Potential Jobs You Can Do At Age 13

Making Money as a 13-Year-Old

When you first see the rules surrounding employing those under age 16, it is really easy to assume that getting work for your 13-year-old will be tricky.

While your child will not be able to get a job in your local fast food restaurant or grocery store, there are lots of services that they can offer at the age of 13. Some of these include the following.

Baby-Sitting

For a very long time, baby-sitting has been the go-to service for teenagers. It is something that is relatively easy to do, and pretty enjoyable.

If your child has grown up with younger siblings, then this is a job that they likely already have some experience with too.

People are always looking for baby-sitters, and if your child is good at looking after children, this could be the perfect way for them to make money.

Pet-Sitting

Baby-sitting is closely followed by pet-sitting when it comes to enjoyable jobs for teenagers.

If your child loves animals, then pet-sitting is pretty much made for them, and there are always people looking for pet-sitters.

Pet-sitting could involve walking a neighbor’s dog while they are out of town, looking after their cats, or even simply feeding their goldfish.

With a huge amount of Americans having pets, there will always be people in your local area looking for pet-sitters.

Gardening And Yard Work

Gardens are often something that working-people simply don’t have the time to maintain, and this is why it is such a great service for your 13-year-old to offer.

From mowing the lawn to watering the plants, or simply sweeping leaves, there are tons of jobs to be done around the garden.

If this is something that your child is interested in doing in your own home, it is well worth considering offering these services to those in your local area.

They’ll have fun doing it and your neighbor’s will be thankful that this tedious job is done.

Cleaning

With most households now having all the adults in the household working, there is an increasing number of people looking for help with their cleaning.

While not all cleaning jobs will be suitable for a 13-year-old, there are a number of jobs that your child can get on with.

From helping people to declutter their homes, to washing the dishes or putting clothes in the washer-dryer, there is lots your child can do around the house.

If they have experience doing this in your own home, they can easily do it in other people’s houses.

Summer Jobs Perfect For 13-Year-Olds

Making Money as a 13-Year-Old

Of course, it is totally possible that your child isn’t looking for work during school time, instead they may simply be looking for some jobs to get on with during the summer holidays.

All the jobs we have looked at so far could be completed as summer jobs, but there are some other types of jobs your child could do during summer break.

Some jobs that your child could complete during the summer include:

Car Wash

Set up a little car-washing station in your front yard and offer car washing services to your neighbors, your 13-year-old will love it!

Camp Counselor

Lots of summer camps look for junior camp counselors and this could be perfect for your child.

Summer Tutor

If your child is particularly gifted at any school subjects, they could offer tutoring services to their classmates.

Summary

In short, there are tons of different things that your child can do to make money as a 13-year-old.

While traditional employment isn’t possible due to federal laws surrounding employing those under the age of 16, there are lots of ways that your child can make money at this age. We have covered lots of them in this complete guide.

Thanks for reading!

Simon Lewis