PAYMENT OF WAGES
Hello, and welcome to our podcast … MOL Radio.
Ontario's Employment Standards Act sets several minimum employment standards for most Ontario workplaces. In this segment, we will be discussing one of these standards, the payment of wages.
If you are covered by the Employment Standards Act, your employer must establish a regular pay period and a regular payday. Your employer has to pay all the wages you have earned in each pay period -- other than vacation pay that is accruing - no later than your regular payday.
If your earnings are totally or partially made up of commissions or bonuses based on sales, your employment contract, or the accepted practice of your employer, might be that the payment of the commission or bonus is not "due and owing" or "earned" until some future event has occurred.
For example, this could be when goods or services have been delivered to the customer and full payment has been received. If this is the practice of your employer, the commission or bonus is not "earned" in the pay period in which the sales are actually made. Instead, it is "earned" and paid at a later date.
Your employer may pay wages through three methods:
• cash
• cheque, or
• direct deposit into your account at a bank or other financial institution.
If your wages are paid by cash or cheque, you must be paid the wages at your workplace or at some other place agreed to in writing by you.
If the wages are paid by direct deposit, the account must be in your name. Nobody other than you can have access to the account unless you have authorized it. The office or facility of the financial institution must be within a reasonable distance from where you usually work, unless you agree otherwise in writing.
On or before your payday, your employer must provide you with a wage statement that sets out:
• the pay period for which the wages are being paid
• the wage rate, if there is one
• the gross amount of wages and, unless you are given the information in some other manner, how the gross wages were calculated
• the amount and purpose of each deduction
• any amounts that were paid in respect of room or board, if that applies to your job, and
• the net amount of wages.
The wage statement must be either in writing or by e-mail if you can print out a paper copy. This statement should be separate from your cheque.
If you stop working, your employer must pay any outstanding wages, including vacation pay - plus any other payments due such as termination and severance pay.
This payment must be made no later than seven days after your employment ends, or on what would ordinarily have been your next regular pay day, whichever is later.
For more detailed information on the payment of wages, please visit the employment standards pages on our website.
You can find us at Ontario.ca - forward slash - employment standards. That's one word.
Once again, Ontario.ca - forward slash - employment standards. That's one word.
Or, call our Information Centre at 1-800- 531-5551. That's 1-800-531-5551.
Thank you for listening to MOL Radio.