What records is an Ontario employer legally required to keep about each employee's hours and pay?

The Employment Standards Act, 2000 requires Ontario employers to keep detailed records for each employee, including basic identifying and employment information, the hours actually worked each day and week, the employee's wage rate and how it was calculated, gross and net wages paid each pay period and the deductions taken from them, and information about vacation time earned, taken, and vacation pay paid. Where an employee is subject to an averaging agreement or another arrangement affecting hours or overtime, records need to reflect that too.

These records matter well beyond satisfying a Ministry of Labour inspection. If a wage or overtime dispute arises, whoever has the better records, usually the employer, has a real practical advantage, since an employee's own recollection of hours worked can otherwise become the only evidence available. Employers who rely on informal scheduling or handshake arrangements for tracking hours are taking on real risk if a dispute arises later.

Setting up a proper system from the start, whether through payroll software or a straightforward time-tracking process, is far easier than trying to reconstruct missing records after the fact. If your current recordkeeping is informal, it's worth reviewing it against the ESA's specific requirements now rather than after a complaint is filed.