Ontario's 2026 Job Posting Rules: A Compliance Test You Can Pass and Still Lose
Ontario's new job posting rules took effect on January 1, 2026, and most of the coverage has framed them as a burden. Post the pay. Say if a machine is reading the résumé. Say if the job is even real. Get back to the people you interviewed. If you employ 25 or more people, all of that is now the law.
Here is the part I want to say out loud, because I spent years in HR doing the opposite: none of this is a burden. It is a description of what a decent hiring process already looks like. The rules did not invent a new obligation. They just made an old one impossible to skip quietly.
So the burden framing misses the real risk. The law can require the disclosure. It cannot require the honesty underneath it. And the move most employers will reach for, comply to the letter and not one inch further, turns each new rule into a fresh, perfectly legal way to broadcast to your entire talent market exactly how little you think of them.
I know that move because I made it. I wrote "competitive salary" and told myself I was protecting negotiating room. I kept ranges vague on purpose. I let interviewed candidates go silent because the req got frozen and nobody wanted the awkward call. Every one of those was defensible in the moment. Every one of them was me telling good people, at scale, that they were not worth a straight answer.
What exactly changed in Ontario on January 1, 2026?
The short version, for provincially regulated employers with 25 or more employees, counted on the day you post:
You have to include the expected pay, or a range. The range cannot be wider than $50,000 a year, so "85,000 to 135,000" is allowed and "85,000 to 140,000" is not. If the job pays more than $200,000 a year, you can skip the number.
If you use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants, you have to say so in the posting.
You have to state whether the posting is for a real, existing vacancy or not.
You can no longer require Canadian work experience, in the posting or on the application form.
You have to keep every posting and application form for three years after you take it down.
And if you interview someone, you have to tell them your decision within 45 days of their last interview.
This is general information, not legal advice, and the fine print has exceptions... confirm your specifics with employment counsel. But the spirit is not complicated. Ontario looked at the most common ways employers waste candidates' time and made four of them illegal.
Why is this a sales problem, not a compliance problem?
Because your job posting is a sales pitch, and Ontario just handed your whole market the rubric.
Candidates are a market. A posting is cold outbound. When you write "competitive salary," you are a rep who will not quote a price. When you post a $50,000-wide range because it is the widest the law allows, you are quoting a price so vague the buyer assumes you are hiding something. When you run a great interview and then go silent, you are the salesperson who nailed the demo and never followed up, then blamed the pipeline.
The compliance reflex treats each rule as a box. Pay disclosed: box. AI disclosed: box. Every box you check at the minimum is still a message, and the message is "we did the least the law allows." Your best candidates, the ones with other options, read that fluently. They are reading your competitors' postings on the same screen.
Doesn't a wide salary range just give you flexibility?
This is the fair objection, and it is real. One posting often covers a genuine band. The market is uncertain. You do not want to anchor yourself low before you have met anyone. Keeping the range wide feels like keeping your options open.
Except the wide range is not neutral, and we now have the data to stop pretending it is. In February 2026, researchers led by Alice Lee at Cornell's ILR School published a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology covering nearly 10 million U.S. job postings plus three follow-up experiments. Women showed a stronger preference for narrower ranges, and the wide range quietly pushed them out of the applicant pool. The same width you posted to protect your flexibility was screening out the candidates you probably most wanted to keep in the funnel.
The fix in that research was not a fake-narrow number. It was context. When the posting explained the typical starting salary and how final offers get decided, the gap disappeared. So the flexibility you want and the trust the candidate wants are not actually at war. A tighter range plus one honest sentence about how you set pay gets you both.
What does a posting that respects the reader look like?
Six steps, and none of them cost more than the minimum-compliant version. They cost more thought, which is the point.
1. Post a real range, then narrow it with context. Stay inside the $50,000 rule, but do not default to the maximum width. Add a line on the typical starting salary and how offers are set. The Cornell research shows that single sentence closes the gap the wide range opens.
2. Say what your AI actually does, in one plain sentence. The law only requires that you disclose you use it. A candidate who reads "we use an automated tool to screen initial applications, and a person reviews every shortlist" trusts you more than one who reads a lawyer's hedge.
3. Only post existing vacancies as existing vacancies. If it is a pipeline or evergreen req, the law makes you say so anyway. Saying it honestly costs you nothing and saves the candidate a fantasy.
4. Build the 45-day reply into the process before you post, not after. If you interviewed someone, you owe them a decision inside 45 days. Put a named human on it, keep it short, and confirm the decision without volunteering reasons or feedback that create exposure. Confirm that wording with employment counsel.
5. Kill the Canadian-experience filter for good, and check your application forms, not just the posting. This is where the requirement most often survives out of habit.
6. Keep your postings, because you have to, and reread them once a year as sales copy instead of compliance text. You will cringe. That is useful.
The honest close
I am in HR. This is aimed at me too. I wrote the vague postings and I defended the silence, and the law did not teach me anything I did not already know. It just made the cost public.
Two things are true at once. This is a compliance exercise you can pass with the bare minimum. And passing it with the bare minimum is one of the more expensive things you can do to your own hiring, because you are doing it in front of the exact people you are trying to recruit. The candidate you ghosted this year is on the buying committee, or the hiring panel, or the reference call, next year. Ontario did not make your hiring honest. It just turned on the lights. What they see is still up to you.
In short
Ontario's job posting rules, effective January 1, 2026, require employers with 25 or more staff to disclose expected pay (as a specific amount or a range no wider than $50,000, unless the role pays over $200,000), disclose any use of AI to screen or select applicants, state whether a posting is for a real vacancy, drop Canadian-experience requirements, keep postings for three years, and tell interviewed candidates the decision within 45 days. Treating this as a box-checking exercise is legal and quietly costly: minimum-compliant postings, like a $50,000-wide "ghost range," signal disrespect to the same talent market that can now read every employer's pitch side by side. The better play treats the posting as a sales pitch, adds context to the pay range, and builds the 45-day reply into the process.
Key takeaways
- The rules apply to Ontario employers with 25 or more employees, counted on the day the posting goes up, and took effect January 1, 2026.
- Pay must be disclosed as an amount or a range no wider than $50,000 per year, with an exemption for roles paying more than $200,000 a year.
- Employers must disclose AI use in screening, state whether the vacancy is real, and drop Canadian-experience requirements from postings and application forms.
- Anyone you interview must be told the outcome within 45 days of their last interview, and postings must be kept for three years.
- A Cornell study of nearly 10 million U.S. postings (Journal of Applied Psychology, February 2026) found wide pay ranges deter female applicants, and that adding context on typical starting pay closes the gap.
- Candidate ghosting is common: in iHire's October 2025 survey of 1,024 job seekers, 53% said an employer had ghosted them, including 20% after a single interview.
Frequently asked questions
When did Ontario's new job posting rules take effect?
They apply to publicly advertised job postings made on or after January 1, 2026. The requirement to tell interviewed applicants the decision applies to interviews that happen on or after that date, regardless of when the job was posted.
Which employers have to follow the pay disclosure rule?
Provincially regulated Ontario employers with 25 or more employees, counted on the day the posting is published. Smaller employers are exempt from most of the requirements. Confirm your own status with employment counsel, since federally regulated workplaces follow different rules.
How wide can a salary range be in an Ontario job posting?
The range cannot exceed $50,000 per year. For example, $85,000 to $135,000 is permitted, but $85,000 to $140,000 is not. If the position pays more than $200,000 per year, you do not have to include a figure.
Do I have to tell candidates if I use AI to screen applications?
Yes. If you use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for a publicly advertised posting, you must disclose that in the posting. You do not have to describe the system in technical detail.
Do I legally have to reply to candidates I interview?
Yes. If you interview an applicant, you must inform them of your hiring decision within 45 days of their last interview. Keep the message simple and confirm the wording with employment counsel, since giving detailed reasons can create legal exposure.
References
1. Government of Ontario. (2026). Your guide to the Employment Standards Act: Requirements related to publicly advertised job postings. Ontario.ca. Verified at primary source, September 2026. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/requirements-related-publicly-advertised-job&source=gmail&ust=1789492976425000&sa=E
2. Hicks Morley. (2025, December 16). New Year, New Rules: Ontario Job Posting Requirements Take Effect January 1, 2026. Verified, corroborates statutory details (Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 and O. Reg. 476/24). https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hicksmorley.com/2025/12/16/new-year-new-rules-ontario-job-posting-requirements-take-effect-january-1-2026/&source=gmail&ust=1789492976426000&sa=E
3. Lee, A., Park, T.-Y., & Chang, S. (2026, February 16). Study on pay range width and applicant behaviour, Journal of Applied Psychology; summarized in Cornell Chronicle, Job listings with wide pay ranges may deter female applicants (March 2026). Verified at Cornell Chronicle; U.S. data. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/03/job-listings-wide-pay-ranges-may-deter-female-applicants&source=gmail&ust=1789492976426000&sa=E
4. iHire. (2025, October). State of Online Recruiting Survey (n = 1,024 job seekers). Company-reported survey figure, U.S. sample; ghosting statistics. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ihire.com/resourcecenter/employer/pages/53-percent-of-job-seekers-have-been-ghosted-by-a-potential-employer&source=gmail&ust=1789492976426000&sa=E
Notes on sourcing: Ontario statutory details are verified against the Government of Ontario's ESA guide and corroborated by employment-law commentary. The Cornell figures are peer-reviewed U.S. research and are used here for candidate behaviour, not Canadian dollar figures. The iHire ghosting figures are a company-reported survey of a U.S. sample and are labelled as such. This article is general HR information, not legal advice; confirm your obligations with employment counsel.
