New Year, New Rules: Ontario Job Posting Requirements Take Effect January 1, 2026

Significant amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) governing job postings and job posting platforms will come into force on January 1, 2026. Employers with 25 or more employees will face new obligations around compensation disclosure, restrictions on Canadian experience requirements, artificial intelligence transparency, vacancy status communication, post‑interview notifications, and record retention. In addition, online job posting platforms will be subjected to new compliance measures to address fraudulent postings.

These changes stem from multiple pieces of recent legislation—the Working for Workers Four Act, 2024, the Working for Workers Five Act, 2024, and the Working for Workers Seven Act, 2025, along with Ontario Regulation 476/24 (Rules and Exemptions re Job Postings). Collectively, these measures establish robust new disclosure requirements for employers and compliance obligations for online job posting platforms.

Who Is Affected?

The new job posting requirements apply to employers that employ 25 or more employees on the day a publicly advertised job posting is posted. Employers with fewer than 25 employees are not subjected to these requirements.

What is a “Publicly Advertised Job Posting”?

The ESA defines a “publicly advertised job posting” as an external job posting that an employer or a person acting on behalf of an employer advertises to the general public in any manner but does not include:

general recruitment campaigns (e.g. “help wanted” signs) that do not refer to a specific position,
internal postings limited to existing employees of the employer, or
postings for positions where the work will be performed outside Ontario, or for roles involving both work in Ontario and work outside Ontario where the work performed outside Ontario is not a continuation of work performed in Ontario (and therefore falls outside the ESA’s scope).

New Requirements for Employers

Starting January 1, 2026, employers with 25 or more employees must comply with the following requirements for their publicly advertised job postings:

Compensation Disclosure

Employers must include information about expected compensation or a range of expected compensation for the position.

“Compensation” is defined as “wages” under the ESA. In the ESA, “wages” broadly covers most forms of pay and allowances under an employment contract, but excludes tips, non‑performance‑based discretionary bonuses, expenses, travel allowances, and employer benefit plan contributions.
When providing a compensation range, the difference between the minimum and maximum cannot exceed $50,000 per year.
This requirement does not apply to positions where expected compensation, or the upper limit of the range, exceeds $200,000 annually.

No Canadian Experience Requirements

Employers are prohibited from requiring Canadian work experience in any publicly advertised job posting or associated application form.

Artificial Intelligence Disclosure

Employers must disclose if they use artificial intelligence (AI) to screen, assess, or select applicants. The ESA defines AI as “a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from the input it receives in order to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments.”

Vacancy Status Disclosure

Every publicly advertised job posting must include a statement indicating whether the posting is for an existing vacancy.

Mandatory Notification: Post-Interview

Employers must inform interviewed candidates whether a hiring decision has been made in respect of the publicly advertised job posting. This must occur within 45 days of their interview (or final interview if multiple occur). This notification may be provided in person, in writing, or using technology.

For this requirement, an “interview” means an in-person or technology-enabled meeting (including teleconference or videoconference) where questions are asked and answered to assess the applicant’s suitability. It does not include preliminary screening activities.

Mandatory Three‑Year Record Retention

Employers must retain:

copies of every publicly advertised job posting and associated application form for three years after public access to the posting is removed
records of the information provided to interviewed applicants for three years after it was provided

New Requirements for Job Posting Platforms

“Job posting platforms” are defined as online platforms that display publicly advertised job postings.

Operators of job posting platforms must:

establish a reporting mechanism or procedure allowing users to report fraudulent job postings
maintain a written policy addressing fraudulent postings and procedures for handling reports
conspicuously display both the reporting mechanism/procedure and the policy where users can readily access them
retain policy copies for three years after the policy ceases to be in effect

Notably, individuals cannot file employment standards complaints under section 96(1) of the ESA for contraventions of these platform-specific requirements.

Act Now

Audit Job Postings: update templates to ensure they include the required compensation ranges, use of AI, and vacancy disclosures
Candidate Notification: set up a system to ensure all interviewed applicants receive the required communication within 45 days
Remove “Canadian Experience”: delete this requirement from all job ads and application forms
Retain Records: save copies of all job postings, applications, and interview records for three years

Should you have questions about these new job posting requirements, please contact your Hicks Morley lawyer.

The article in this client update provides general information and should not be relied on as legal advice or opinion. This publication is copyrighted by Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP and may not be photocopied or reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the express permission of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP. ©

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