How Ontario's New 2026 Job Posting Rules Change Employer Disclosure

Most of the coverage of Ontario’s new job-posting law has focused on the salary-range requirement, because it’s the easiest headline. But Ontario job posting disclosure rules 2026 actually cover a much wider package of changes, several of which matter more to a South African applicant’s day-to-day experience than the salary line does. Here’s the full picture, question by question.

What exactly are Ontario employers now required to disclose?

Employers with 25 or more employees, posting publicly in Ontario as of 1 January 2026, must disclose: expected compensation or a compensation range (capped at a $50,000 spread, with no cap above $200,000 a year); whether AI is used to screen, assess or select applicants; whether the posting represents a genuinely existing vacancy; and, separately, they’re barred from including Canadian work-experience requirements in the posting or application form at all. On top of the posting content itself, there’s a new obligation to respond to interviewed candidates within a set window, and a new document-retention requirement.

Does a posting have to say if AI screens applicants?

Yes — this is one of the more overlooked parts of the package. Does a posting have to say if AI screens applicants? Under the new rule, if an employer uses artificial intelligence to screen, assess or select candidates for the role, the posting has to disclose that. Given how widely automated résumé screening is already used across Canadian hiring, this is a genuinely useful piece of transparency for an applicant trying to understand why a formatting choice on their résumé might matter more than expected.

What counts as a ghost job under the new rule?

A “ghost job” — a posting that isn’t actually attached to a real, currently open position, sometimes kept live to build a talent pipeline or signal growth — is exactly what counts as a ghost job under the new rule when a posting fails to represent a genuine vacancy. Ontario’s rule now requires employers to state whether the posting reflects an actual open role. This won’t eliminate every questionable posting overnight, but it gives applicants and regulators something concrete to point to where a posting turns out not to have been real.

How long does an employer have to respond after an interview?

This is the forty five day response deadline after an interview: employers covered by the rule must notify interviewed candidates of the outcome of their application within 45 days of the final interview. For South African applicants used to silence after an interview being the norm rather than the exception, this is a meaningful, enforceable change — though it applies specifically to candidates who reached the interview stage, not to every applicant who submitted a résumé.

Does this mean records get kept for longer?

Yes. Covered employers must retain job postings, application forms and interview records for three years. That has a practical benefit for applicants too: if you ever needed to raise a discrimination complaint related to a specific application, the underlying records are now required to still exist well after the hiring decision was made.

Are any employers or postings exempt?

Several categories sit outside the rule: general recruitment campaigns or “help wanted” signage not tied to a specific position, internal-only postings not advertised publicly, and roles that fall outside the Employment Standards Act’s jurisdiction altogether. And the whole package only applies to employers with 25 or more employees — smaller Ontario employers aren’t captured by any part of this specific posting law.

What should a South African applicant actually take from this?

Knowing the full ontario job posting disclosure rules 2026 package, read postings from covered employers with a slightly more informed eye than you might have before: the salary range, if shown, is a real commitment rather than a guess; a stated AI-screening disclosure is worth noting when you’re formatting your résumé; and a missed 45-day response window, where it happens, is a documented breach rather than simply bad luck. None of this replaces good judgment about which roles are worth your time — but it does mean the posting itself now tells you more than it used to.