Employment Standards

In Ontario, employment standards for provincially-regulated employees (as opposed to federally-regulated employees who work in sectors such as banking and broadcasting) are set out in the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

Key points on employment standards in Ontario include:

Employment standards apply to employees and not to other workers properly designated as contractors.
Not all employment standards apply to all employees, and so it’s important to look up exclusions for certain categories of employees such as supervisory or managerial employees.
Contracting out of a minimum employment standard requirement is not permitted and even a contract provision that unintentionally provides for an employee to receive less than their minimum may be deemed void.
Employment standards are only minimums and employers are free to provide employees with more than the minimum.
Exceeding one employment standard does not create a ‘credit’ when it comes to any other employment standard, as all applicable minimums must be met.

Highlights of employment standards requirementsin Ontario include:

Vacation entitlements composing both vacation time and vacation pay. Employees with a length of service below 5 years are entitled to minimum vacation pay of 4% and minimum annual vacation time of 2 weeks while employees with a length of service of 5 years or more are entitled to minimum vacation pay of 6% and minimum annual vacation time of 3 weeks.

Overtime entitlements apply to weekly time worked over 44 hours per week but are subject to (i) overtime exemptions that apply to certain categories of employees; and (ii) any valid agreement to ‘average’ an employee’s hours over two, three, or four weeks. Overtime entitlements pay be provided in the form of overtime pay, or as time off in lieu under certain circumstances.

The Employment Standards Act, 2000 establishes various protected leaves that apply to employees in Ontario, including pregnancy leave, parental leave, and leaves that apply to various circumstances involving the health of employees and their family members. While away on a protected leave, an employee will generally continue to accrue seniority and service and be entitled to employer-provided benefits. On returning from a protected leave, an employee will be entitled to be returned to the position they held before taking leave or to a comparable position.

When a business is sold and the buyer employs an employee who works for the seller, employment standards may automatically result in that employee’s years of service transferring to the new employer.

Public holiday pay must be paid for the following nine public holidays, to all employees who qualify for this entitlement:

New Year's Day
Family Day
Good Friday
Victoria Day
Canada Day
Labour Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day
Boxing Day (December 26)

Minimum notice of termination and minimum severance pay are two separate entitlements that apply to employees in Ontario, with minimum severance pay only being applicable to employees who have five years’ service or more where certain eligibility criteria are met.

The contents of this page are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice.