Ontario’s 2026 Job Posting Rules

Five posting rules, one coverage test

The 2026 changes sit inside the Employment Standards Act, 2000, brought in by the Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 and its regulation. They are not one rule but five, and they all hang on a single coverage test. That test is an employer with 25 or more employees, posting a publicly advertised job. Read the five duties as the map of the work, then hold them against your own postings.

1. Expected compensation on the posting. Every public posting states the expected pay or a range. A range cannot span more than $50,000. The duty falls away only where the pay, or the top of the range, is above $200,000 a year. Compensation tracks the meaning of wages under the ESA, so base salary and guaranteed bonuses count. Discretionary bonuses, tips, and benefits do not.
2. AI disclosure. If artificial intelligence is used to screen, assess, or select applicants, the posting has to say so. The law does not require detail on the system or how it works, only the disclosure that it is in use.
3. Vacancy status. The posting must state whether it is for an existing vacancy or not, so a candidate knows there is a real opening before applying. The law does not force the employer to fill it.
4. No Canadian-experience requirement. A publicly advertised posting, and its application form, cannot require Canadian work experience. This targets a known barrier for internationally trained applicants.
5. Applicant follow-up and record-keeping. Tell every interviewed applicant whether a hiring decision was made, within 45 days of the last interview. Keep each public posting and associated application form for three years after the posting is taken down.

The pay rule is the headline, but all five bind together once the coverage test is met. The next sections take the two that carry the most operational weight, the pay range and the follow-up duty. Then they cover where employers misread the line.

The 25-employee line and what a public posting is

Two definitions decide whether any of this applies to a given posting. The first is size: the rules reach employers with 25 or more employees. A business that hovers near that line should assume coverage. What matters is the headcount on the day a specific posting goes live, not an annual average. The second is the kind of posting. The duties attach to publicly advertised job postings, the external ads visible to the general public. Internal-only postings and direct, individual recruiting outreach sit outside the rule. Once a posting is public and the employer is at or above 25 employees, all five duties apply to it at once.

The $50,000 range cap and the $200,000 exemption

The pay rule is specific in a way that trips up old templates. A posting can carry a single figure or a range, but a range cannot span more than $50,000 from bottom to top. So $70,000 to $115,000 is fine. $70,000 to $130,000 is not. The widely used tactic of posting a very broad band to preserve negotiating room is no longer available for covered postings. The one carve-out is at the top end. Where the expected compensation, or the top of the range, is above $200,000 a year, the pay-disclosure duty does not apply. That exemption mostly catches senior and specialized roles, but the other four duties on the same posting still stand. And the figure has to be genuine. The range must reflect the compensation the employer actually expects to pay, not an aspirational or misleading number. Nothing in the law obliges the employer to hire within the posted band.

The 45-day reply and the three-year record

Two duties run after the posting itself. The follow-up rule says an employer must tell each applicant it interviewed whether a hiring decision has been made. That is within 45 days of that applicant’s last interview. It is scoped to interviewed applicants, not every person who applied, and it does not force a particular outcome, only a reply. The record-keeping rule says the employer keeps a copy of each publicly advertised posting and any associated application form. The retention runs three years after the posting comes down. Together they turn the posting process into something an employer has to be able to show after the fact. So a simple log becomes part of the workflow rather than an afterthought. It records what was posted, when it came down, and who was told what.

Four ways employers read this wrong

• Posting a band wider than $50,000.The single most common miss. A $60,000 to $120,000 range looks reasonable but breaks the cap. The spread between the low and high end has to be $50,000 or less unless the role is above the $200,000 line.
• Treating it as pay-only.The pay range is the headline, but four other duties ride on the same posting. Those are AI disclosure, vacancy status, no Canadian-experience requirement, and the 45-day applicant reply with three-year record-keeping. A posting that gets the pay right and ignores the rest is still non-compliant.
• Assuming small means exempt.Coverage is 25 or more employees, tested on the day the posting goes live. A business that sits near that line through seasonal or fluctuating headcount can be covered for a posting it thought was outside the rule. The safe default is a compliant template once you regularly operate at or near 25.
• Forgetting the 45-day clock and the records.The follow-up duty is easy to overlook because it lands after the hire is decided. Every interviewed applicant gets told whether a decision was made, within 45 days of their last interview. The posting and application form are kept for three years after the posting comes down.

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