Ontario restaurant labor laws

Ontario: overtime after 44h a week, $17.60 minimum wage, 30-min meal break after 5h, 11h rest between shifts, minimum working ages. Every figure sourced.

The figures ShiftNivo schedules against in Ontario, read from the source linked at the bottom of this page.

Updated September 21, 2026

Start with Ontario's rules loaded →No credit card. Free during early access.

Overtime

Daily: No separate rule*
Weekly: after 44h · 1.5×
Double time: No separate rule*

Rest between shifts: 11h
Eating period: 30 min after 5h
Minimum wage: $17.60since 2025-10-01
Default time zone: America/Toronto

* “No separate rule” means the engine does not enforce one here. That is not the same as saying the jurisdiction has none.

Public holidays · 9

Boxing DayDecember 26premium pay
Canada DayJuly 1premium pay
Christmas DayDecember 25premium pay
Family Daythird Monday in Februarypremium pay
Good Friday2 days before Easterpremium pay
Labour Dayfirst Monday in Septemberpremium pay
New Year's DayJanuary 1premium pay
Thanksgivingsecond Monday in Octoberpremium pay
Victoria DayMonday on or before May 24premium pay

Youth hours

The bands the product checks for Ontario, read from the jurisdiction's own source. Permits, supervision and exemptions sit underneath every band, and each one says what is not checked.

Under 14
Not permitted
Ontario sets minimum ages by workplace rather than by hours: 14 in a restaurant serving area, 15 in a restaurant kitchen, 16 in a mining plant, 18 underground. There is no daily, weekly or nightly limit for young workers in the Employment Standards Act — school attendance is compulsory to 18, so time in class is the real constraint.
Ages 14 to 17
No hour or night limit
No hour or curfew limits in Ontario at this age. The limit is the workplace: 14 to work in a restaurant serving area, 15 in a restaurant kitchen. Nor may work interfere with school, which is compulsory to 18.

Source: ontario.ca/page/minimum-age-work

Minors →

What ShiftNivo checks for you here

Overtime after 44 hours in a week, priced as you build, with a warning four hours before anyone crosses it.
Fewer than 11 hours of rest between two shifts.
A shift longer than 5 hours without its 30-minute eating period.
The minimum working age, read from a birth date and marked as an error, not a warning.
9 public holidays, each flagged the week before it arrives and priced at its premium, split at midnight.
Everywhere: double bookings, approved time off, and shifts outside the hours someone said they can work.

Start with Ontario's rules loaded →

Next door

The rules one border over, for a second location or a team that crosses it.

The federal standard: Federal (Canada Labour Code) →All 66 jurisdictions →

This is reference data, not legal advice.

Every figure on this page was read from the source linked beside it and carries the date it took effect. Minimum wages are indexed once or twice a year in most jurisdictions — usually on 1 April or 1 October — so this table is reviewed on a schedule rather than when somebody notices.

Employment standards change, and a restaurant's obligations depend on facts no software can see: an exemption, a collective agreement, a municipal ordinance, the particular job somebody does. Some rules are deliberately not modeled, and where that is true this page says which.

Treat these figures as a starting point. Confirm them against the source before relying on them for pay, and take advice about your own situation.

Found something wrong? Corrections get fixed first. hello@shiftnivo.com

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