A lot of this took effect quietly in January and still hasn’t reached the floor of most restaurants and hotels. Here’s where things stand at the end of August, for both sides of the pass.
What changed on 1 January
The job posting rules are the big one, and they apply to employers with 25 or more employees who advertise a job publicly. If that’s you, every posting now has to include the expected compensation or a range, and a range can’t span more than $50,000 a year. The exception is compensation above $200,000, or a range whose top end is above $200,000. The posting also has to say whether there’s an existing vacancy behind it, and it has to disclose any use of artificial intelligence to screen, assess or select applicants, which covers a lot of standard applicant tracking software. You can no longer require Canadian work experience in a posting or on an application form, and the same applies to Canadian educational credentials and Canadian professional networks. Legitimate licensing requirements are still fine.
Then there’s the part workers care about most. Anyone you interview has to be told the outcome within 45 days of that interview, or of the last one if there were several. That rule follows the interview, not the posting, so it applies to any interview held after 1 January even if the job went up in November. You also have to keep the posting, the application forms and a record of those notifications for three years.
One more January change. Job posting platforms now have to give users a visible way to report fraudulent postings and publish a written policy on how they handle them.
Changes from 2025 that still catch people out
Since 1 July 2025, employers with 25 or more staff have to give new hires written information before their first day, or as soon after as is reasonably possible. It covers the employer’s legal and operating names, contact information, the work location, the starting wage, the pay period and pay day, and the expected hours.
Also since 1 July 2025, an employer running a mass termination of 50 or more people in a four-week period has to hand every affected employee an Employment Ontario Career Supports information sheet on the first day of notice, along with the individual notice and a Form 1 filed with the Director. That sheet exists because services like ours are what it points people toward.
Since 19 June 2025, there’s a long-term illness leave of up to 27 weeks unpaid in a 52-week period, for employees with at least 13 consecutive weeks of service and a certificate from a qualified health practitioner.
Since 27 November 2025, workers caught in a mass termination get three unpaid days of job seeking leave.
Background worth repeating, though it isn’t new: since October 2024 the maximum fine for an individual convicted of an ESA violation has been $100,000, double what it was.
What’s coming on 1 October
The general minimum wage goes from $17.60 to $17.95 an hour, a 1.9 per cent adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index. The student rate, which covers students under 18 working 28 hours a week or less while school is in session, goes from $16.60 to $16.90. Homeworkers go from $19.35 to $19.70. Ontario got rid of the separate liquor server rate in January 2022, so serving staff are on the general rate.
For operators, the cost that bites is what happens to everyone currently sitting between $17.60 and $18.50, because a raise at the bottom compresses the gap you were using to reward your experienced people.
For workers, the honest version is that 35 cents an hour is about $12 on a 35-hour week before deductions. If your hours get trimmed in October, and hours are the first thing that moves when payroll costs go up, you can end up earning less in November than you did in September. Keep your schedules and your pay stubs.
What’s proposed but not law yet
Bill 105, the Protecting Ontario’s Workers and Economic Resilience Act, was introduced on 20 April 2026. It’s been amended in committee and ordered for third reading, so it hasn’t passed. If it goes through as drafted, employers would be barred from making workers pay for uniforms or their laundering and repair, starting 1 January 2027. It would also let the Director refuse to investigate complaints considered frivolous or vexatious, and bring in regulation of talent agencies. None of it is in force, so don’t plan around it yet.
A 16-week unpaid leave for the placement of a child through adoption or surrogacy has passed but is still waiting on a proclamation date.
Two things to do this week
If you’re an employer, open your three most recent job postings and read them against the January list. The compensation range and the AI disclosure are the two most commonly missed, and the 45-day notification is the one candidates now complain about.
If you’re a worker, count back from your last interview. If it’s been more than 45 days and that employer has 25 or more staff, they owe you an answer.
This is general information and not legal advice. For a specific situation, start with Ontario’s Your Guide to the Employment Standards Act or the Ministry of Labour’s employment standards line.
