Most of your rights at work in Canada come from your province’s employment standards law; if you work for a federally regulated employer, such as a bank, an airline, a telecom company or the federal government, they come from the Canada Labour Code instead. These laws set the minimums for pay, overtime, vacation, holidays, leaves and notice, and each province has an office that enforces them. This guide covers those rights, what to do when an employer doesn’t respect them, the money side of leaving a job, and how employer benefits work.
Rights at work
What your employer owes you, province by province:
- Vacation time and vacation pay by province
- Overtime rules by province: daily and weekly thresholds, the rate and banked time
- Statutory holidays and holiday pay
- Sick days and family responsibility leave: paid and unpaid days, family responsibility leave and job protection, by province
- Maternity and parental leave by province: weeks, who qualifies, paternity leave, returning to work and top-ups, by province
- Bereavement leave: days, paid days and whose death counts, by province
- Caregiver leave: compassionate care, family caregiver and critical illness leave, by province
- Job-protected leave overview: every leave side by side, what job protection means, pay and EI, notice, domestic violence and jury duty leave, and a leave of absence
- Gig worker rights: the rules for app-based work (how the CRA decides between employee or contractor is on contractor vs employee)
- Earning while on workers’ compensation, and how workers’ comp benefits work
Minimum wages are listed on minimum wage by province, and the provinces that require salary ranges in job postings are covered on pay transparency laws in Canada.
When your employer breaks the rules
Each dispute has its own page with the steps to take:
| Problem | Where to start |
|---|---|
| You haven’t been paid | My employer hasn’t paid me |
| Overtime isn’t being paid | My employer is not paying overtime |
| Vacation pay is owed | My employer owes me vacation pay |
| CPP or EI isn’t being deducted or remitted | My employer is not paying CPP or EI |
| No Record of Employment after you left | Your Record of Employment: late, missing or wrong |
| You were treated as a contractor | Employee or contractor |
| Your hours, pay, duties or benefits were cut or changed | My employer cut my hours, pay or duties (benefits: changed benefits) |
Most of these end, if the employer doesn’t fix the problem, with a complaint to the provincial employment standards office (or the federal Labour Program for federally regulated workers). Who handles complaints in each province, the deadlines and what you can recover are on how to file an employment standards complaint. Problems with CPP, EI and the ROE also involve the CRA and Service Canada, as each page explains; applying for EI itself is covered on how to apply for EI.
Leaving a job
- Quitting your job: notice, final pay and what you keep
- Your Record of Employment (ROE): when it is issued, how to see it and what the codes mean
- How much notice your employer owes you, by province
- Severance pay in Canada: statutory severance, common-law notice and tax
- Termination and severance pay calculator
- Wrongful dismissal
- Constructive dismissal: when a change ends the job
- Keeping health, dental and life cover after you leave
If you were laid off or fired, the first weeks in order, from the notice and final pay to the ROE, EI and group benefits, are on laid off or fired: what to do in the first weeks.
Employer benefits
- Workplace benefits guides: group plans, health and wellness spending accounts, flex plans, coordination of benefits and benefits after you leave a job
- How employer RRSP matching works
How each benefit is taxed is covered in the taxable benefits hub, including tax on an employer RRSP match.
Pay calculators
- Raise calculator: what a raise is worth after tax
- Overtime calculator: regular and overtime pay for a week
Browse All Workplace Rights and Employee Benefits in Canada Articles
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