---
title: "Your guide to the Employment Standards Act"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/fe9e2efa-2098-403d-ae5e-bb701f3508fb
source_url: "https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0"
stack: https://stacklist.com/stack/6cab74bd-5894-488e-8f5d-3c24d85a4fc5
summary: "Your Guide to the Employment Standards Act provides comprehensive information about employee rights and employer obligations under the ESA, covering minimum wage, hours of work, termination, leave benefits, and severance pay. The guide emphasizes that employees cannot waive their rights, employers are prohibited from reprisals, and violations can result in enforcement action including compensation, reinstatement, or prosecution."
tags: "employment-standards, worker-rights, minimum-wage, termination, leave-benefits"
key_entities: "Employment Standards Act (ESA) (concept), minimum wage (concept), termination of employment (concept), pregnancy and parental leave (concept), severance pay (concept), overtime pay (concept), reprisals (concept)"
classification: "reference"
content_hash: "sha256:397b1cbf044754bd9d9dbd0697d16c2083fbb84cb51077a289b56adf0adb2f63"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 1940
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# Your guide to the Employment Standards Act

Print all Your guide to the Employment Standards Act Know your rights and obligations under the Employment Standards Act ( ESA ). This guide describes the rules about  minimum wage , hours of work limits , termination of employment , public holidays , pregnancy and parental leave , severance pay , vacation and more. On this page Skip this page navigation Recent and upcoming changes Read about recent and upcoming changes related to employment standards, including: job seeking leave extended temporary lay-off job posting platforms placement of a child leave (adoption or surrogacy) long-term illness leave new rules about employment information rules and exemptions for job postings payment of wages — direct deposit About your guide to the ESA This guide is a convenient source of information about key sections of the ESA . It is for your information and assistance only . It is not a legal document . If you need details or exact language, please refer to the ESA itself and its regulations . This guide should not be used as or considered legal advice. You may have greater rights under an employment contract, collective agreement, the common law or other legislation. If you’re unsure about anything in this guide, please talk to a lawyer. Topics covered by the ESA ? These include: benefit plans bereavement leave child death leave crime-related child disappearance leave critical illness leave declared emergency leave domestic or sexual violence leave the employment standards poster: distribution requirements equal pay for equal work family caregiver leave family medical leave family responsibility leave filing a claim hours of work, eating periods and rest periods infectious disease emergency leave licensing – temporary help agencies and recruiters lie detector tests long-term illness leave minimum wage non-compete agreements organ donor leave overtime pay payment of wages pregnancy and parental leave public holidays reservist leave severance of employment sick leave temporary help agencies termination of employment and temporary lay-offs tips or gratuities vacation written policy on disconnecting from work written policy on electronic monitoring of employees Reprisals are prohibited Employers are prohibited from penalizing employees in any way because the employee exercised ESA rights. Clients of temporary help agencies are prohibited from penalizing assignment employees in any way because the assignment employee exercised ESA rights. Recruiters are prohibited from penalizing prospective employees who engage or use the recruiter’s services in any way for certain reasons, including asking the recruiter to comply with the Act or making inquiries about whether a person holds a licence as required by the ESA . Employers, clients of temporary help agencies and recruiters who commit a reprisal can be: ordered to compensate the employee, assignment employee or prospective employee ordered to reinstate the employee or assignment employee (if the reprisal was committed by an employer or client of a temporary help agency) ordered to pay a penalty prosecuted Learn more about reprisals . Greater right or benefit If a provision in an employment contract or another Act gives an employee a greater right or benefit than a minimum employment standard under the ESA then that provision applies to the employee instead of the employment standard. No waiving of rights No employee can agree to waive or give up their rights under the ESA (for example, the right to receive overtime pay or public holiday pay). Any such agreement is null and void. Enforcement and compliance Violations of the ESA can result in enforcement action. The type of enforcement action that can be taken depends on which provision of the ESA was contravened. Examples include: an order to pay a compliance order a ticket a notice of contravention with a monetary penalty an order to reinstate and/or compensate prosecution Other workplace-related laws The ESA contains only some of the rules affecting work in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs issues such as workplace protections for foreign nationals and child performers, workplace health and safety, human rights and labour relations. Related Ontario laws include the: Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act, 2009 Protecting Child Performers Act, 2015 Occupational Health and Safety Act Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 Labour Relations Act, 1995 Pay Equity Act Human Rights Code For more information about other Ontario laws, contact ServiceOntario: Tel:  416-326-1234  (in Toronto) Toll-free:  1-800-267-8097  (in the rest of Ontario) online at ServiceOntario.ca Federal laws affecting workplaces include statutes on income tax, employment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan . For more information about federal laws, call the Government of Canada information line at  1-800-622-6232 . Who is not covered by the ESA ? Most employees and employers in Ontario are covered by the ESA . However, the ESA does not apply to some people and the people or organizations they work for, such as: employees and employers in sectors that fall under federal employment law jurisdiction, such as airlines, banks, the federal civil service, post offices, radio and television stations and inter-provincial railways individuals working under a program approved by a college of applied arts and technology or university individuals working under a program that is approved by a career college registered under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005 secondary school students who work under a work experience program authorized by the school board that operates the school in which the student is enrolled people who do community participation under the Ontario Works Act, 1997 police officers (except for the lie detectors provisions of the ESA , which do apply) inmates taking part in work or rehabilitation programs, or individuals who work as part of a sentence or order of a court people who hold political, judicial, religious or elected trade union offices major junior ice hockey players who meet certain conditions related to scholarships individuals who meet the definition of business consultant or information technology consultant under the ESA if certain conditions are met For a complete listing of other individuals not governed by the ESA , please check the ESA and its regulations . Employee misclassification Employers are prohibited from misclassifying employees as independent contractors, interns, volunteers or any other type of worker not covered by the ESA . Learn more about employee misclassification . Additional resources In addition to this guide, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development ( MLITSD ) has additional resources available to assist you: The Employment Standards Act Policy and Interpretation Manual is the primary reference source for the policies of the Director of Employment Standards respecting the interpretation, administration and enforcement of the ESA . The Employment Standards Self-Service Tool is available to help employers and employees understand some of their obligations and rights under the ESA . Staff at the Employment Standards Information Centre are available to answer your questions about the ESA . Information is available in many languages. You can reach the information centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. by calling: Tel : 416-326-7160 Toll-free: 1-800-531-5551 Toll-free TTY : 1-866-567-8893 Additional educational resources are available. Tell us what you think about the information on this page and how you’re using it. Take our survey . Updated: February 05, 2026 Published: November 22, 2017