How to File an ESA Claim With Ontario's Ministry of Labour

In Ontario, an unpaid-wages claim is filed with the Ministry of Labour. Filing a complaint is governed by s. 96 of the ESA. Once your claim is in, an employment standards officer is assigned to investigate. That officer has real power: after investigating, the officer can issue an order requiring your employer to pay the wages it owes you. You are not asking a judge to award damages — you are asking a specialized regulator to enforce a statutory minimum.

Ontario's overtime threshold is distinctive, and it's the number that trips people up. Under s. 22 of the ESA, overtime pay is owed at at least one and one-half times the regular rate for each hour worked in excess of 44 hours in a work week. Not 40 — 44. Ontario has no daily legal overtime threshold; the calculation is weekly.

So before you file, quantify the claim: for each work week, count the hours over 44 that were not paid at 1.5×, and total them across the period. That figure is what your ESA claim puts in front of the officer. If you earn two different rates in a week, the overtime is based on the rate for the work performed in each hour — see our guide on two pay rates in one week.

Here is the parameter that decides how much you actually get back. Under s. 111(1), an employment standards officer may not order wages that became due to the employee more than two years before the complaint was filed. On the inspection route, s. 111(3) applies the same limit measured from the day the officer commenced the inspection.

Read that carefully: it is a flat two-year ceiling counted back from the day you file. Every month you wait, the oldest month of underpayment can drop out of reach permanently. There is no rolling per-pay-period calculation as in Québec and no 24-month federal reach — Ontario is its own clean two-year block. Do not confuse this two-year Ontario window with the federal 24 months or Québec's one year; applying the wrong clock either throws away recoverable wages or chases amounts the law considers out of time. Our companion piece breaks down how far back you can claim in each regime.

Your claim rests on hours, and Ontario law puts a recordkeeping duty on your employer that works in your favour. Under s. 15(1), an employer must record, among other things, the dates and times the employee worked (para. 3.1). Under s. 15(4), even where an employee's hours are not otherwise tracked, the employer must record the hours worked over 44 in a week. And under s. 15(5), these records must be retained for three years after the employee's employment ends.

That means the employer is legally obligated to hold the very evidence that proves your overtime. Assemble your own dated time log first, then know that the officer can compel or review the employer's records — the two should be confronted against each other.

An employment standards officer's decision is not necessarily the end of the road. The review route in Ontario runs to the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB). If you — or your employer — disagree with the officer's order, that is where it can be reviewed. Knowing this exists helps you understand the shape of the process: a Ministry investigation and order first, with the OLRB as the review body, not a general civil court.

1. Confirm Ontario jurisdiction — you're a provincially regulated Ontario employee (not federally regulated, not Québec).
2. Quantify the claim — for each week, hours over 44 (s. 22) that went unpaid at 1.5× the regular rate.
3. Attach your own time log — a dated record of the hours you actually worked, plus payslips and schedules.
4. File your claim with the Ministry of Labour — the complaint is governed by s. 96; an employment standards officer investigates and can order payment.
5. Mind the two-year ceiling — recovery is capped at wages that became due within two years before you file (s. 111). File early.
6. Know the review route — an officer's order can be reviewed at the OLRB.