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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Paper round pay?

86 replies

Paperound · 03/01/2025 19:03

My DC has just got a paper round job.

It's £13

But we don't know if that's per day (about 45mins to 1 hour delivery round) or per week!! (DC seems to think it's per week from what was said at 'interview' last week, and I also think, sadly, it's per week!)

Anyone have recent experience and knowledge of what the going rate is?

Thanks!!

(AIBU to think, if it's £13 a week, that's a bit exploitative!!? My DC is very keen and thinks this is a lot of money! And if that's the rate, is very fine with it!! But as an adult I realise that for an hour a day, it's peanuts!!)

(DC will be getting up early every day before school in all weathers! Getting to the shop to collect the papers is quite time consuming, and then getting home after the round will take longer (as they end up further away at end of round!). There aren't many houses to deliver to, but they r quite spread out!! So it will take about 2 hours all-in probably, from leaving home to getting home again!)

OP posts:
NotSayingImBatman · 05/01/2025 13:05

I used to get £13/week back in 1998 with a £10 weekly bonus if I went back in the evenings to deliver magazines.

TooManyChristmasCards · 05/01/2025 13:06

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 03/01/2025 19:10

Ridiculous to do a paper round for pennies. He’d be much better off using the time for health or educational purposes.

agreed,

but it's a good lesson on why it's important to work intelligently, not just "working hard" for the sake of it - which gives you nothing.

My daughter earns more than that selling bracelets she makes while watching tv!

On a side note, the way younger people are exploited with these ridiculous amounts is infuriating.

Blackcat910 · 05/01/2025 13:12

I used to get more than that in about 2005. How many days per week is it? The newsagent I worked for had different staff to deliver on Sundays.

Growsomeballswoman · 05/01/2025 13:17

£13 is a joke. I pay my DS £10 to clean my car (inside and out) takes just over an hour

Original poster
Paperound · 05/01/2025 19:51

DurinsBane · 03/01/2025 23:45

I’m just here for when we get the answer!

I'll update when we find out!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Paperound · 05/01/2025 19:55

bellabelly · 04/01/2025 00:08

Yes, I think he / she has probably misheard. My DS earns about £35 a week for delivering papers Mon-Sat. So £30 a week for only 5 days would sound about right for round here (South East). Let him / her try doing it for a couple of weeks and if it really is only £13 a week, strongly suggest they start looking for a better paying job. I remember doing waitressing etc at about age 14, then doing a Saturday job at a shop, all of which were quite fun!

The great things about my son's paper round is that it doesn't take up a whole day (like a Saturday job would), he doesn't have that many houses to deliver to and they're all quite nearby, he's always been quite an early riser so doesn't mind the early starts, and lord - the Christmas tips are amazing! He writes xmas cards to all his customers and sticks them through the letterboxes with their papers in early December. Nearly all of them give him a card back, usually with a lovely message and a generous tip. He made about £250 in tips this year and last xmas too - quite a good haul! He likes feeling a bit financially independent and I honestly think it's made him think about spending money in a different way.

Thanks! Not misheard! They have a piece of paper with the round printed on and the woman in the shop has written £13 at the top of the paper and underlined it :)

OP posts:
Ineffable23 · 05/01/2025 21:59

£13 a week?

I know he's too cool for his mum and dad's help but I do think that you have to take care to make sure he's not being exploited. And at that pay I really think he would be. I guess he could do it for a month or so and see if the time it takes is substantially lower, but I really feel like they're taking the mickey paying £2 something an hour.

PinotPony · 05/01/2025 22:12

That’s ridiculous. Way too low a wage.

My DS gets £35 for a 7 day paper round. He usually starts around 06.40 on a weekday or 07.40 on a weekend. Round takes about half an hour.

He also covers extra rounds whenever possible and made over £150 in Christmas tips.

Ineffable23 · 05/01/2025 22:16

Would it be worth you seeing what the shop charges for paper delivery OP ?

Let's say they charge the customers 20p a day. That would mean for £13 they'd only need to deliver 13 papers a day to make up the delivery charge. So either they're massively undercharging their customers on the paper delivery or they're skimming off a big chunk of the delivery costs for themselves and then choosing to pay a very low salary in the process.

Editing to add: 20p a day was what we were charged for our paper delivery when we had one - which I think was in about 2010.

jazzandh · 06/01/2025 21:06

My son does a local monthly paper and gets 6p a magazine and 1p per leaflet, so for his round earns about £50 on average. It works out for his round about £10/hour. It's a good compromise as only monthly and he has a week to deliver them all in but covers a larger area.

Hermanfromguesswho · 06/01/2025 21:14

I did a paper round for 5 days a week about 35 years ago and got £5 for the week 😂

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