Ontario’s 2026 job-posting rules: a checklist for your next posting

Since January 1, 2026, Ontario’s Employment Standards Act has set rules for publicly advertised job postings. They apply when the work is performed in Ontario and the employer has 25 or more employees on the day the posting goes up. A posting open only to current employees is not covered.

Here is a checklist you can run on any posting before it is published.

1. Count the employees on posting day

The threshold is 25 employees, counted on the day the posting is published. It is not a yearly average, so a seasonal employer can be in on one posting and out on the next.

Staffing agencies count their assignment employees. When you post a job order for a client, work out who the employer of the hire will be. If you cannot tell, assume the rules apply.

2. Show the pay, or a range no wider than $50,000

The posting must include the expected compensation, or a range of expected compensation. A range can be no wider than $50,000 a year. Positions paid more than $200,000 a year do not need either.

Convert hourly pay before you check the range. At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, $22 to $45 an hour is $45,760 to $93,600 a year: a spread of $47,840, inside the limit. A range of $45,000 to $105,000 a year is $60,000 wide and does not comply.

If the range is wide because one posting covers several levels, post each level separately.

3. Remove “Canadian experience” from the posting and the application form

The Act prohibits requiring Canadian experience, in the posting and in any application form that goes with it. Look past the exact phrase: “local experience”, “experience in a Canadian workplace” and “Canadian references” screen out the same people. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has long treated a Canadian-experience requirement as a barrier for newcomers.

Describe the skill instead. “Two years operating a reach truck in a warehouse” tells candidates what you need, wherever they gained it. Requirements such as being legally entitled to work in Canada, or holding a licence the job needs, are a different matter and can stay.

4. Say whether AI is used to screen, assess or select

If artificial intelligence is used to screen, assess or select applicants, the posting must say so. The regulation that goes with the Act defines artificial intelligence for this purpose; read the definition before deciding a tool is out of scope. When in doubt, disclose. A statement you were not strictly required to include costs you nothing.

Keep the statement accurate: say what the tools do, and that a person makes the decision if that is true. Our free generator writes it in English and French from the template we use in our own product.

5. Say whether the job is open now

Every public posting must state whether it is for an existing vacancy. If you are building a pool of candidates for later, say that.

6. Answer interviewed applicants within 45 days

Anyone you interview for a publicly advertised position must be told, within 45 days of their last interview, whether a hiring decision has been made. With several interviews, count from the last one.

Put the date in your calendar on the day of the interview. The notice is short, and missing it is the easiest way to fall out of compliance.

7. Keep the posting and the form for three years

Keep a copy of every publicly advertised posting and its application form for three years after the posting comes down, along with records of the outcome notices you send. If you edit a live posting, keep each version.

In practice

Most of the work happens before the posting goes live: a posting template that already carries the statements, a pay range agreed with the hiring manager, and a reminder set for every interview. After that, it is record keeping.

In TalentInitiator each rule above is a check in the posting composer, and our Ontario explainer shows what the product does about each one.