What is the difference between my ESA minimum entitlements and common law notice in Ontario?

The Employment Standards Act sets only a statutory minimum floor for notice of termination, and for some employees severance pay, based on a graduated schedule tied to length of service. Common law reasonable notice is a separate, judge-made entitlement that considers a broader range of factors - age, length of service, seniority, and the availability of comparable work - and is often significantly higher than the ESA minimum. Unless your written contract validly and enforceably limits you to the ESA minimum, you are generally entitled to the higher common law amount instead.

A common misconception is treating the ESA minimum as the general rule for what is owed on termination; in reality it is the legal floor beneath which an employer can never go, not a description of typical entitlements for most dismissed employees. ESA severance pay, where it applies based on the employee's length of service and the employer's size, is an additional statutory entitlement separate from ESA termination notice, and is not folded into the common law notice calculation at all - the two systems operate independently of each other.