What jobs can you get at 13?

So you’re settling into high school and starting to enjoy a bit more freedom. Some of your friends might already be earning money in their spare time – and you’re wondering what types of jobs you can get at 13.

Getting your first job is both exciting and empowering; it’s an important milestone that teaches you responsibility and accountability. Taking on a job also helps build confidence and develops skills that will help you for many years to come, like time management, problem solving and good communication. 

In this article we cover how to earn money as a 13 year-old, what opportunities are available to young people, labour regulations and restrictions, and what different roles involve.

What is the legal working age in Australia?

Australia doesn’t have a standard legal working age that applies to all states and territories. The rules on what age you can start working, the industries and for how long are different depending on where you live. So can a 13 year old work? The answer is yes, you can. Despite many people believing you have to be 14 years and 9 months to get a job, in most states and territories you can do some part-time work from age 11, and in most places from age 13. 

In most parts of Australia, there’s no minimum age for part-time or casual work in the following circumstances:

• work in a family business
• work as an actor, musician, entertainer or in an ad
• work for charities and non-profit organisations

The exception is the Northern Territory, where the minimum working age in any circumstance is 15. 

Children need a parent's or guardian's permission to get a job in most places and can’t work during school hours. There can also be limits on how many hours you can work per day and per week, and sometimes a nighttime curfew may apply. Because the rules and restrictions differ depending on where you live, it’s important to check your specific location before you start applying for jobs. 

You can check the child labour laws that apply in your area at the Fair Work Ombudman website.

Safe and fun jobs for a 13 year-old in Australia 

If you’re ready to get started in the workforce and are wondering ‘what job can I get at 13?’, here’s a look at what jobs hire at 13 years old, that are safe and fun:

Fast food worker 

Places like fish ‘n’ chip shops, Domino's pizza, Boost Juice, or your local family-run takeaway restaurants are good options for a first job, and will help you develop skills you can use at many other jobs too. As a fast food worker you’ll do things like:

• Greet customers
• Take orders for food and drinks
• Take payments
• Food preparation
• Cooking
• Cleaning
• Packing food into containers or bags to be taken away

Pros of working in a fast food restaurant: The busiest hours for fast food are nights and weekends - perfect to fit in around school hours. You’ll learn essential transferable skills that you can use in your future jobs and in your personal life. Fast food is fast paced which will make the time go quickly. 

What a fast food worker needs: you’ll need to be friendly, reliable, and have the confidence to talk to customers. Good listening skills and attention to detail  are important to take (and make) orders accurately.

Skills you’ll pick up: Working as a fast food worker you’ll learn customer service, time management, communication, and problem-solving skills, develop your ability to use your initiative, and build resilience. 

What fast food workers are paid: covered by the Fast Food industry award, junior employees are paid 40% of the adult rate, so expect to be paid around $9.89 per hour.

Pet sitting 

When pet owners are planning on leaving town, they can either board their pets or get someone to look after them in their own home, which is where pet sitting comes in. As a pet sitter, you are responsible for:

• Feeding
• Cleaning litter or other pet waste
• Administering any medications
• Play time and companionship
• Walks (if you’re looking after dogs)

Sometimes the pet stays with you at your house, but it’s more common that you visit the pet at the owner’s house once or twice a day. In rare cases, pet sitters are hired to stay overnight.

Pros of being a pet sitter include: high demand during school holidays; no special skills required; in most cases pet sitting doesn’t take a lot of time; and it can be a fun and fulfilling line of work.

What’s needed to be a pet sitter: transport to get to your customers' homes; reliability; empathy; good communication; critical-thinking skills (in case of unexpected challenges); and experience caring for animals (like your own pets). 

Skills you can pick up: taking on the responsibility of pet sitting will develop your decision-making and problem-solving skills; reliability; animal care; and time management.

What pet sitters are paid: professional pet-sitting services on platforms like rover.com start from around $20 per visit, but rates vary depending on the number of pets and what services you need to provide. In big cities during high-demand times, you could earn between $40 to $50 per 30-minute house visit, and more for additional visits and/or pets. 

Lawn mowing 

Lawn mowing has long been a popular job for young teenagers looking to earn cash-in-hand around their neighbourhood. The job usually involves:

• Mowing grass in someone’s yard
• Removing weeds, leaves and other organic debris
• General tidying of a lawn/yard
• Finishing edges
• Disposing of glass clippings 

Pros of lawn mowing: once you have one client, you can generally keep working for them; it’s low-stress work; you don’t need any special skills; you can enjoy being outside; it’s physical activity; and you’re providing a valuable service for people who often can’t take care of their gardens themselves. 

What’s needed to be a lawn mowing provider: in most cases you won’t need to supply equipment, but if you can you may be able to charge more. At first, you may have to find your own clients by word of mouth, advertising in local newspapers, door-knocking your neighbours, school newsletters or local online community groups. You’ll have to know how to operate different types of lawn mowers and have some experience tending lawns.  

Skills you can pick up: as a lawn mower you can improve your landscaping abilities; get better at communication; practice being reliable; and build confidence dealing with different people. 

What lawn mowers are paid: lawn services hover around the $40–60 per hour mark, but this is for skilled professionals. Your fees should match your ability, experience and market rates in your area.  

Window cleaner 

Neighbourhood window cleaning is fairly straightforward and has a low barrier to entry, meaning most anyone can do it. As long as you are physically capable of providing window cleaning, you should be able to find local work. The job involves:

• Using the right products for the surfaces and intensity of cleaning required
• Maintaining windows for houses and shops
• Potentially using ladders or scaffolding to access higher
  areas 

Pros of being a window cleaner: this is a job you can do in your spare time; you can find local jobs that don’t require commuting; you can establish a client base through word of mouth.

What a window cleaner needs: aside from knowledge about cleaning products (and potentially providing your own, like detergents, squeegee, cloths etc.), you need to be good at communicating, reliable, and physically fit enough to work outside for a few hours at a time. 

What skills you’ll pick up: you’ll learn negotiating and sales skills; customer service skills; technical skills related to home maintenance and possibly other ‘handyperson’ skills.

What a window cleaner is paid: you can set your own prices depending on the size and complexity of the job. Minimum wage for people under 16 in Australia is $8.55 per hour, so consider this when setting your rate. 

Restaurant or café waitstaff

Getting casual work in a restaurant or café is a great way to build your confidence and learn hospitality skills that you can use in a wide range of jobs later in life. Working at a restaurant or cafe you’ll do things like:

• take drink and food orders 
• bring orders to tables
• clear away dirty dishes
• clean tables
• dispose of waste

Pros of working in a café or restaurant: you can work after school hours; the work will give you a vast range of practical and transferable skills; they're high-energy environments where the hours will fly by. 

What a wait person needs: you’ll need to be confident enough to talk to customers; have good listening skills; be friendly, reliable, resilient; be able to keep up with the fast pace of food service. 

Skills you’ll pick up: customer service skills, communication, multitasking, cleaning and tidying, thinking on your feet, and attention to detail. 

What servers are paid: covered by the restaurant industry award, junior employees are paid 50% of the adult rate, so expect to be paid around $11.30 per hour. 

Dog walker 

If you love dogs and enjoy being outdoors, dog walking may be the right first job for you. Tasks generally include:

• collecting and dropping off customers’ dogs
• outdoor excercise
• dog socialisation
• picking up dog waste

Pros of dog walking: it can be done after school or on weekends, you get to choose your customers, and you get to set your own rate and work hours. Your customers will likely provide the equipment you need. 

What a dog walker needs: you need good communication skills to talk to clients and agree on the details of the job, you must be reliable and good with different types of dogs. You should have a good baseline level of fitness and strength.

Skills you’ll pick up: this job can teach you responsibility, time management, communication and negotiation skills, and the ability to handle dogs and read dog behaviour.

What dog walkers are paid: the amount you can earn from dog walking varies depending on the number of clients you have and how much you charge. A professional dog walker can earn around $25-40 per hour, but you should base your rate on your level of experience and what the going rate is in your area.

Babysitter 

As a babysitter, you’ll be responsible for the care of children while their parents are away, or even while they're working at home. Tasks will be varied but usually include:

• Playing with children 
• Food preparation and potentially help with feeding 
• Bed time 
• Tidying away toys
• Clearing away dishes
• Ensuring the general safety and wellbeing of your clients’ children

Pros of babysitting: babysitting is something you may already have experience with at home, you can easily find work outside of school hours, and it’s a job that can be enjoyable. If you’re looking after children while they sleep, it’s an easy way to earn money.

What a babysitter needs: looking after someone else’s children requires a high degree of patience, responsibility, maturity, and critical thinking. You may need to know how to cook and operate household appliances confidently. To be able to handle emergencies, you might also need basic first-aid skills. You'll have to know how to follow instructions to the letter.

Skills you can pick up: you can learn a lot about child development, and improve skills in communication and problem solving, which will benefit you in other jobs down the track. 

What babysitters are paid: technically you can set your own rate, but it should be in line with your experience, the age of the children, and the number of children. Professional child minders with education experience and qualifications charge from $25 to $35 per hour per child – as a younger babysitter just starting out, your rates may have to be more competitive. 

YouTube content creator 

If you like shooting and editing videos, being a YouTube content creation may be a way to earn money. To be a YouTube content creator, you need to:

• be creative 
• have good video editing skills
• be comfortable in front of a camera 
• have knowledge of digital media trends to appeal to your audience
• have knowledge of YouTube's content guidelines

Pros of being a YouTuber: it allows you to express your creativity and share your interests, it’s enjoyable, it gives you marketing skills for the future, and it can make good money. 

What a YouTuber needs: a good camera, whether it’s your phone or you're using a more expensive set up with microphone and video-editing software. You’ll need knowledge of the platform and to be successful, you’ll need basic videography skills and original ideas for content.

Skills you’ll pick up: content creation and storytelling, digital marketing, and audience engagement. You might also learn things like visual effects and sound production, depending on how far you want to take your video creation abilities.

What a YouTuber gets paid: ideally you would build up your followers and earn money through paid ads. There are other opportunities for income, through sponsorships, merchandise sales, and subscriptions. By joining up with the YouTube Partner Program you can start earning a small amount (an average of US$0.018 per view) for Google-placed ads that play during your content.

Retail

Working in retail is one of the jobs you can get at 13. No matter where you work, the job generally involves different shop duties, like: 

• Assisting customers  
• Stocking shelves
• Cleaning/tidying
• Operating a register or POS terminal
• Bagging items 

Pros of working in retail: it’s easy to find hours after school; you’ll learn many transferable skills; you may get staff discounts in your store; you earn a higher rate on weekends and public holidays. 

What retail workers need: good communication; cash-handling skills; a friendly and patient demeanour; reliability; the ability to problem solve; learn store procedures and follow instructions; flexibility with hours. 

Skills you’ll pick up: communication skills, teamwork, customer service and potentially sales and managerial skills. Dealing with customers can be challenging and will build resilience.

What retail workers are paid: jobs in retail are covered by the General Retail Industry Award, so you can expect to be paid around $11.13 per hour as a junior employee.

Produce picker 

If you live in a rural area, fruit picking may be a good fit for you. Picking and packing fruit or vegetables, like cherries, strawberries and asparagus, for example, can involve: 

• Physically picking fruit and vegetables in the field
• Packing fruit so it doesn’t get damaged
• Bringing picked produce to be counted/weighed
• Meeting any picking quotas
• Stacking fruit pallets and bins

Pros of fruit picking: it doesn’t require any previous skills or experience; much of the fruit picking is over the summer school holidays; it’s an outdoor, low-stress job; and you can meet people from around the world, as it’s a popular job for working visas.

What fruit pickers need: you need to be physically fit and able to work outdoors in hot weather. 

Skills you’ll pick up: you’ll hone the skills required to pick produce quickly. You may also learn about weeding or pruning, and will build physical strength and endurance. You might learn other farm maintenance duties, depending on where you work.

What a produce picker is paid: jobs are covered by the horticulture award, the adult minimum wage being $28.26 an hour, with junior rates being 50% of that rate. If you pick fast, you may earn more. 

Monetising your passions 

Your hobbies and interests can also help you earn money. You might be skilled at a musical instrument, sport or craft that you could teach others. If you’re great at sewing, art or jewellery making, for instance, you could open your own online shop or sell at a market stall. 

Skills you’ll pick up: going into business for yourself will help you develop skills like budgeting, marketing and customer service, as well as accountability and problem solving. 

How much you can get paid: depends on what goods or services you’re providing. A casual rate for music tutoring, sports coaching or teaching arts and crafts could be between $10 and $20 per hour. 

There are some great examples of young people who have turned their hobbies or interests into a profitable business, like:

• Kai, who cofounded Kaiko Fidgets after making his own fidgets at age 11. 
• Riley, who created jewellery from age 5, and who founded Gunner & Lux with one of her dads.
• Angus who at 7 years old started Croc Candy to raise money to support others with dyslexia

Tips on how to be safe for young workers 

It’s important to be mindful of your own safety, especially if you’re visiting customers’ houses or marketing your content online. Always let a trusted adult know about your job, and make sure you’re aware of labour laws and regulations regarding the employment of children.  

Here are some tips to help you stay safe while finding work or working:

• Always let an adult know when and where job interviews are, and ideally have someone accompany you to the interview. 
• Work with friends or school mates, if possible.
• Before you accept a job, make sure it's legitimate. Look for reviews or ask for references to ensure the employer is trustworthy. Employers legally require a permit to hire children under 16.
• If you’re asked to sign a contract, make sure a parent or guardian reads it carefully to ensure it's fair and that you understand your rights and responsibilities. 
• Trust your instincts – if you ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable at work, leave and report the incident to an authority.

Getting a job for the first time can be an exciting and rewarding experience. You’ll learn new skills that you’ll be able to use in the future, in both your professional and personal life. Ensure job opportunities offered to you are safe and legal, and that a parent/guardian knows where you are and what your job entails.

Whether you choose to babysit, wait tables, mow lawns, or explore other job options, a job gives you valuable work experience that will grow your skill set, build your confidence, teach you resilience and responsibility, and put money in your bank account. 

FAQs

Where can I work at 13?

You can work in a retail store, delivering newspapers, or in a café or restaurant. You can also work for yourself doing jobs like gardening, babysitting, tutoring, or selling things you make. 

How to make money at 13?

There are lots of options for how to make money as a 13 year-old. You can get a job working in retail or restaurants, or set up a business doing things like babysitting, gardening, lawn mowing, dog walking, or window cleaning. You could sell things online or at a market stall, or become a YouTube creator. The best way to make money is by doing something you enjoy and are good at. 

Where can I work at 13 in VIC?

Here's are 10 places you can work at 13 in Victoria:

1. Restaurants or cafes
2. Retail stores
3. Family businesses
4. As a babysitter
5. Newspaper delivery
6. Acting/modelling/extras work
7. Dog walking/pet sitting
8. Social media/content creation work 
9. Online surveys
10. Odd jobs for neighbours

Can 13 year-olds work in NSW?

Yes, 13 year olds can work in NSW. In fact, there is no minimum working age in NSW, but there are restrictions on the amount of hours you can work in a week and times when you can work.

Can I work at Maccas at 13?

No, you can’t work at McDonalds at age 13, their minimum age for workers is 14 years old.

Can you work at KFC at 13 in Australia?

No, while you may be allowed to work at 13 in your state or territory, KFC’s rules state that for safety reasons they don’t employ anyone under 14 years old.

Can I be 13 and work at Coles?

No, you can’t work at Coles at 13 years of age. Coles’s policy is that the minimum age for their employees is 15 years old.

Can a 13 year old work?

If you’re keen on earning your own money and wondering “can I get a job at 13?" you have a range of options, as outlined above. In certain industries there is no minimum age for work in Australia, except in the Northern Territory, where minimum age is 15. Some states and territories have restrictions on what times and how many hours you can work per week, so it’s best to double check the rules for your state before starting your job hunt.

What is the best job for a 13 year-old?

The best job for a 13 year-old is something that is outside school hours, that you enjoy, and that can teach you valuable skills for the future, like time management, customer service, cash handling, and communication. So you might be thinking “what jobs can I get at 13?” There are opportunities in retail, restaurants, offices and farms. You can also do work for your own customers, such as babysitting, gardening, social media content creation, tutoring, or anything else you’re good at that you could make money from doing.

What are some safe and fun jobs I can do at 13? 

Some jobs you can do at 13 years old that are both safe and fun include:

• Retail assistant
• Babysitting
• Gardening or odd jobs 
• Social media content creation
• Delivering newspapers
• Dog walking or grooming
• Selling craft
• Voiceover work
• Being a TV or movie extra 
• Tutoring or coaching