Minimum wage Ontario 2026: $17.95 an hour

Ontario minimum wage rates for 2026–2027

Ontario's general minimum wage is $17.95 an hour from October 1, 2026, and four other rates apply to specific workers.^[on_mw] Each rate is the minimum per hour actually worked, whatever the pay period.

Download Ontario minimum wage history (CSV)

• Student rate, $16.90: students under 18 who work 28 hours a week or less while school is in session, or who work during a school break or summer holidays.
• Homeworker rate, $19.70: people who do paid work in their own home for an employer, for example assembling products or answering calls.
• Hunting, fishing and wilderness guides: $89.75 for less than five consecutive hours in a day and $179.50 for five or more hours, paid in blocks rather than by the hour.

Ontario minimum wage per week, month and year

At $17.95 an hour, a 40-hour week pays $718.00, a month about $3,111.33 and a 52-week year $37,336 before deductions. A 37.5-hour week is $673.13 ($35,003 a year) and a 20-hour part-time week $359.00.

Employers must also pay vacation pay of at least 4% of wages (6% after five years), use the vacation pay calculator for Ontario to add it, and overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate after 44 hours in a week, which the overtime calculator for Ontario works out.^{[on_vac][on_ot]}

When does Ontario's minimum wage go up next?

Ontario's minimum wage rises every October 1 by the change in the Ontario Consumer Price Index, and the new rate is published on or before April 1.^[on_mw] The next increase is due October 1, 2027; its amount will be announced by April 1, 2027. Recent increases: $16.55 (2023), $17.20 (2024), $17.60 (2025), $17.95 (2026).

Minimum wage by province in Canada

Ontario's $17.95 is in the middle of the country: Nunavut has the highest general minimum wage at $20.17 and Alberta the lowest at $15.00, unchanged since October 2018.^{[prov_mw][fed_mw][bc_mw]} Federally regulated jobs (banks, airlines, telecoms, interprovincial trucking) use the federal minimum of $18.15, or the provincial rate if it is higher. For British Columbia's rules, see minimum wage BC. Living costs vary too: a Toronto homeowner's yearly bill is on the property tax Toronto page.

Download this table (CSV)

Sent home early: Ontario's three-hour rule

If you regularly work more than three hours a day and your employer sends you home after less than three, you must be paid for three hours at your regular rate.^[on_mw] At the $17.95 minimum wage, two hours worked plus one more hour under the rule is $35.90 + $17.95 = $53.85, the government's own example. The rule does not apply if your regular shift is three hours or less, or in some cases where the reason you could not work three hours was beyond the employer's control. It covers students too, except some camp and recreational-program work.

Room and board counted as wages

An employer may count room and meals toward the minimum wage only at fixed weekly amounts, and only if you actually ate the meals and lived in the room.^[on_mw] A private room counts as $31.70 a week, so a 40-hour employee in one must still receive at least $686.30 in cash wages.

Common minimum wage mistakes

• Counting meals or a room toward the minimum wage at more than the weekly amounts the ESA allows for room and board.
• Paying a salaried employee less than $17.95 for each hour worked once their hours are added up.
• Using the student rate for students 18 or older, or for more than 28 hours in a school week.
• Forgetting that commission pay must still average at least the minimum wage for every hour worked.