How much would you pay him?

I agree, £10 for the complete work, plus refreshments of course! Then if when he does your hedges as well, you could give him a bonus if he does a really good job or if it takes a long time.

We paid about £15 ph to a 14 year old neighbour for pressure washing work, a messy job..
I think £10 ph seems fair enough for a 12 year old for lawn cutting, though.

He sounds a real star, Luckygirl, and should be encouraged. £10 for cutting and edging a smallish lawn sounds right, the correct money is easy to hand over, and occasional cake or biscuit treat never goes amiss at the hollow legs stage. Well done you for finding him.

Assuming he's not from a very poor family and supplementing their income, I would pay the £5 and every now and then give him a £5 bonus.

I would give him £5 as he asked for,and a lovely christmas bonus.
He will then keep doing a grand job.

Agree £10, I’d pay that. Is he available to travel ??

LauraNorder .......thank you for your greetings. I am indeed settled in my new home, surrounded by friends and able to walk in beautiful places each day. But I am in fact renting it at present as I am waiting for the sale to go through.

I think I will plump for £10 - it seems fair to me. He bashes on and is not taking any longer than an adult.

I always gave my grandson a tenner when he did any jobs for me whether they lasted an hour or 20 mins because I felt it was the willingness to give up his time to help me
So I d say a tenner is a good going rate at 12 years old and £20 an hour is way too much, blimey he’ll have a real shock when he lands a real job at minimum wage or apprentice wage

£4.62 is the minimum wage for a 16 year old - how can anyone be worth as little as this? I would have thought £10

Hello Luckygirl, how lovely to see you here. I’ve had a little break so have missed your news. I’m assuming your house purchase went well and you’re settling nicely in to your new home.
Are you near to your friends or are you further up the road?
Sounds as though you are getting well organised. I imagine your young gardener is glad of the work and the experience. He obviously doesn’t have to worry about a tax return so I wouldn’t be too hasty to increase his pay. Wait and see if he continues to be consistently good and consistently punctual and then offer him a pay rise on that basis. £5 does seem low but if he takes four times longer than an adult at £20 it’s the same.

I've been paying £15 and it's a small lawn. Took only about 8 minutes to cut and strim.

I agree that £5 an hour is possibly exploitative, but a lot depends on what you can afford, and what he is happy to accept. He won't be paying rent or food bills at his age.

If £20 an hour is too much, is there anything you could offer to do for him on top of the fiver? Bake a cake, or knit him a hat? Teach him a skill of some kind?

I like the idea of local barter instead of some jobs attracting higher rates than others, but at the same time, 12 year olds often want cold hard cash, and they don't have many opportunities to earn it.

About an hour - it is not a big lawn (well grass and weeds really!).

I was thinking £10.

Checkatrade has the going rate at £20 an hour, how long is it taking him?