- within Employment and HR topic(s)
- with Senior Company Executives, HR and Finance and Tax Executives
- with readers working within the Accounting & Consultancy, Aerospace & Defence and Basic Industries industries
Key Takeaways
- Starting January 1, 2026, Ontario employers with 25 or more employees must disclose pay transparency, vacancy status, and use of AI in hiring in job postings.
- Employers must disclose if AI is used in screening or selection processes.
- Employers must notify candidates of hiring decisions within 45 days and keep all postings and applications for three years.
Effective January 1, 2026, employers with 25 or more employees in Ontario will be required to make certain disclosures in their publicly advertised job postings. The new rules impose mandatory disclosure obligations regarding pay transparency, role vacancy, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the hiring process. In addition, employers will be prohibited from including any requirements related to Canadian experience in their public job postings and application forms.
Key definitions
The legislation 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", subject to certain prescribed exclusions. "Artificial Intelligence" is broadly defined under the legislation 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".
Pay transparency
When making a publicly advertised job posting, employers will now have to include the expected annual compensation for the role or the range of expected compensation (such range not to exceed $50,000). For example, a stated range of $80,000 to $120,000 would be permissible while a range of $60,000 to $120,000 would not. Employers will want to give careful thought to the expected range of compensation that they post in order to achieve compliance with statutory requirements while still maintaining flexibility and supporting talent recruitment efforts.
These new pay disclosure requirements only apply where the expected annual compensation for the role is $200,000 or less. This is because there are two exemptions under the regulations: (i) for roles where the expected annual compensation is more than $200,000; and (ii) for roles where the upper end of the range of the expected compensation is more than $200,000. For example, if the role's expected annual compensation is $250,000 or if the role's annual compensation is expected to range from $180,000 to $220,000, then the new job posting rules do not apply.
Role vacancy
Under the new rules, employers will now be required to include in their public job postings a statement disclosing whether or not the posting is for an existing vacancy. The rationale for the new requirement appears to be to help applicants better discern between posts for existing vacancies and more 'speculative job postings' intended to gauge talent or gather market data.
Use of AI in the hiring process
Under the new rules, employers will be required to disclose in their public job postings if AI is used to "screen, assess, or select applicants". The regulator has not provided any guidance regarding the specific language or level of detail needed to comply with this requirement. Subject to any future guidance from the regulator, one option is to interpret this requirement literally — to simply state if AI is used. While some employers are planning to implement high-level, generic use statements, others are making the decision to provide more specific, detailed disclosures (i.e., the type of technology used, a description of how AI will be used, etc.).
Additional requirements
In connection with these new requirements, employers will now also have a duty to notify candidates interviewed for a publicly advertised job posting whether a hiring decision has been made for that posting within 45 days of their latest interview. This notification can be done in person, in writing, or using technology, but the employer must keep copies of these notifications for three years. In addition, employers will be statutorily required to keep copies of every public job posting and any associated application forms for three years after the job posting is taken down.
These changes were introduced by the Working for Workers Four Act and the Working for Workers Five Act. The new requirements are set out in sections 8.1 – 8.6 of Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 and O. Reg. 476/24 Rules and Exemptions re Job Postings.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
