A federally regulated employer of roughly 20 to 200 staff carries recurring obligations across a few authorities: the Labour Program (Canada Labour Code Parts II and III — health and safety, labour standards), the Pay Equity Commissioner and the Canadian Human Rights Commission (pay equity, employment equity, accessibility, human rights), and the CRA for the payroll mechanics shared with every other employer. This guide maps those obligations by when they recur and by what headcount unlocks them. It does not state the live deadline or dollar figure for any of them — each one links down to a note that states the durable rule, and from there to the government page that holds the current value. Confirm every exact date and dollar amount at the named source before you act on it.

The pattern matters more than any single date, and for federal employers the headcount thresholds matter as much as the calendar: several major obligations don’t apply at all below a specific employee count, so the first question is what your count has already unlocked. This guide, and the notes it links to, replace the equivalent Ontario ESA, OHSA, Human Rights Code, AODA and Pay Equity Act material entirely for a federally regulated employer — see Federal vs. Ontario Jurisdiction: The “Instead Of” Rule.

What your headcount turns on

Federal obligations gate on five thresholds. Read them cumulatively — an obligation that attaches at a lower threshold keeps applying as headcount grows.

Any size, 1 or more employees. The full core of federal labour standards and health and safety already applies: minimum wage, hours and overtime, vacation, the 10 general holidays, 10 days of paid medical leave, the personal/bereavement/family-violence leaves, individual termination notice and severance, recordkeeping, the Part II general duty and hazard prevention program, hazardous-occurrence reporting, the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations, and the Canadian Human Rights Act’s prohibited grounds and duty to accommodate. None of this waits for a headcount trigger.
Fewer than 20 employees. A health and safety representative stands in for a committee. See Health & Safety Committees and Representatives.
10 or more employees. The Pay Equity Act (plan, posting, committee, annual statement) and the Accessible Canada Act (accessibility plan, feedback process, progress reports) both switch on. For an employer in the 20-to-200 band, this always applies. See Federal Pay Equity Act: Applicability and Accessible Canada Act: Applicability and the Planning Cycle.
20 or more employees. A workplace health and safety committee replaces the representative. See Health & Safety Committees and Representatives.
50 or more employees terminated within a 4-week window. The group-termination regime attaches — a 16-week Ministerial notice and a joint planning committee, on top of, not instead of, each affected employee’s individual notice and severance. This is event-driven, not a standing headcount. See Group / Mass Termination.
100 or more employees. The Employment Equity Act’s annual reporting duty attaches, and a pay equity committee becomes mandatory — it’s also mandatory at any size where the workforce is unionized. See Employment Equity Act: 100-Employee Threshold and Annual Report.
300 or more employees. A policy health and safety committee is required on top of the workplace committee. This sits above the 20-to-200 band, so it’s informational for most of this audience.

An employer in the middle of the 20-to-200 band is already past the representative-to-committee switch and past both 10-employee gates, and is either just below or just above the 100-employee Employment Equity Act line, which is worth checking precisely. Roughly 85% of federally regulated private-sector employers have fewer than 20 employees, so a 20-to-200-person employer is already above the typical federal employer on every one of these gates.

Annual filings

June 1 — Employment Equity Act annual report. Federally regulated private-sector employers with 100 or more employees file via the Workplace Equity Information Management System, covering the prior calendar year. See Employment Equity Act: 100-Employee Threshold and Annual Report.
June 30 — Pay Equity Act annual statement. Due to the Office of the Pay Equity Commissioner for any employer with 10 or more employees that has posted a plan. See Pay Equity: Annual Statement, Maintenance Cycle and Commissioner.
Annually, on the anniversary of your plan-publication deadline — Accessible Canada Act progress report. Years 2 and 3 of each 3-year cycle require a progress report; small organizations with 10 to 99 employees, whose first plan was due June 1, 2024, track that anniversary. See Accessible Canada Act: Employer-Size Thresholds and Deadlines.
Annually — the Employer’s Annual Hazardous Occurrence Report to the Labour Program, filed even in a year with nothing to report, plus the on-board equivalent for aviation, rail, or marine activity, and the workplace committee’s own annual report. See Hazardous Occurrence Investigation, Recording and Reporting.
Annually — a report to the Minister of Labour on harassment and violence occurrences. Required of every federal employer regardless of size. See Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations.

The April 1 minimum-wage reset

The federal minimum wage resets every April 1, indexed to the prior calendar year’s average Consumer Price Index and rounded up to the nearest 5 cents — an automatic adjustment, not a fresh piece of legislation each year. Where the province an employee works in sets a higher minimum wage than the federal rate, the higher provincial rate applies instead. See Federal Minimum Wage for the rule and the current stamped figure, and confirm the live number at the government source each year rather than reusing last year’s.

Event-driven duties

Some obligations don’t sit on a calendar date; they trigger on something happening.

A new hire starts the clock on OHS orientation and training, on harassment and violence training (due within 3 months), and on the 30-day qualifying period for paid medical leave.
An individual termination without cause triggers graduated notice or pay in lieu, 2 to 8 weeks depending on service, plus severance pay once the employee has 12 months of service, plus a written statement of benefits. See Individual Termination: Notice and Pay in Lieu and Severance Pay.
50 or more terminations inside a 4-week window triggers the group-termination regime described above.
A hazardous occurrence triggers an investigation, plus a phone report within 24 hours for the most serious outcomes and a written report within 14 days for disabling injuries. See Hazardous Occurrence Investigation, Recording and Reporting.
A notice of occurrence under the harassment and violence regulations starts a resolution process that must conclude within a year.
A medical-leave absence of 5 or more consecutive days lets the employer request a certificate, within 15 days of the employee’s return.
An accommodation request triggers the Canadian Human Rights Act’s duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship.

Resets, counts, and multi-year cycles

Paid medical leave resets to a maximum of 10 days on January 1 each year; unused days can carry forward, but each carried-over day reduces that year’s new accrual by one, so the ceiling stays at 10. Personal leave, bereavement leave, and family-violence leave paid-day counts reset on the employment year. Vacation entitlement is tracked from each employee’s own anniversary of continuous service, not a single calendar date for the whole workforce.

On a longer cycle: the harassment and violence workplace assessment, the written prevention policy, and the related training all need review at least every 3 years, and the Accessible Canada Act plan itself is republished every 36 months. The Pay Equity Act plan needs a maintenance update at least every 5 years — the first wave, for employers who posted their initial plan by September 3, 2024, falls due by September 3, 2029.

Where employers trip up

A group-termination notice under the Canada Labour Code does not, on its own, create any additional pay-in-lieu entitlement. Affected employees still receive their own individual notice and severance on top of the 16-week Ministerial notice; the group process is a notice-and-planning obligation, not a bigger payout. See Group / Mass Termination.

Severance pay is easy to miss because it isn’t part of the termination-notice calculation — it’s a separate entitlement that attaches once an employee has 12 months of service, on top of whatever notice or pay in lieu they’re owed. See Severance Pay.

The recurring mistake with every dollar figure in this guide — the minimum wage, the administrative-monetary-penalty grid, the pay-equity penalty caps — is freezing it. Every one of them changes on its own schedule, and the notes linked above route you to the government page that holds the current number rather than asserting it here.

This is general information, not legal advice; get advice on your own situation. Every exact date and dollar figure in the notes linked above must be confirmed at the named government source for the current year — these notes route you to that page on purpose and are not the authority on the live deadline or amount.

Source: Government of Canada — Federal labour standards · July 20, 2026

Last reviewed July 20, 2026.

Confidence: Verified

Related notes

Federal vs. Ontario Jurisdiction: The Employment-Law "Instead Of" Rule — A federally regulated employer follows the Canada Labour Code and related federal statutes in place of Ontario employment law, not on top of it — the federal regime replaces the ESA, OHSA, Human Rights Code, AODA and Pay Equity Act rather than adding to them.
Which Sectors Are Federally Regulated — The Canada Labour Code enumerates specific private-sector industries as federally regulated — banking, air and rail transport, interprovincial trucking, telecommunications, and others — plus any business that is vital, essential, or integral to one of them.
How to Determine If You Are Federally Regulated — There is no single government register of federally regulated employers; confirming jurisdiction means checking the enumerated sectors, assessing interprovincial or international operations, and treating genuinely borderline cases as a question for counsel rather than a self-service classification.
Federal Minimum Wage (CLC Part III) — The federal minimum wage resets every April 1, indexed to the prior year's CPI and rounded up to the nearest $0.05, and an employer must pay the higher of the federal rate or the applicable provincial rate where the employee works.
Hours of Work and Overtime (CLC Part III) — Standard federal hours are 8 a day and 40 a week, overtime is at least 1.5 times the regular rate beyond that, and a handful of exemptions and averaging arrangements can change the calculation.
Breaks and Rest Periods (CLC Part III) — Federal employees get an unpaid 30-minute break every 5 consecutive hours of work, at least 8 consecutive hours of rest between work periods, and unpaid medical or nursing breaks where needed.
Annual Vacation (CLC Part III) — Federal vacation entitlement is tiered by continuous service — 2 weeks/4% after 1 year, 3 weeks/6% after 5 years, 4 weeks/8% after 10 years — a richer scale than Ontario's, which has no statutory 4-week tier.
General (Statutory) Holidays (CLC Part III) — Federal employees get 10 general holidays, one more than Ontario's 9, because the federal list adds the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Remembrance Day.
Recordkeeping (CLC Part III) — Federal employers must keep hours and wage records for 36 months, paid-medical-leave records for 3 years, and the required averaging and holiday-substitution notices — recordkeeping failures are a designated AMP violation.
Paid Medical Leave (CLC Part III, s.239) — Every federally regulated employee accrues up to 10 days of paid medical leave a year regardless of employer size, a right added to the Canada Labour Code effective December 1, 2022.
Personal, Bereavement, and Family-Violence Leave (CLC Part III) — Federally regulated employees have a suite of short job-protected leaves — personal, bereavement, pregnancy-loss, and family-violence leave — each with its own paid-day component.
Maternity, Parental, and Caregiving Leaves (CLC Part III) — The Canada Labour Code job-protects maternity, parental, critical-illness, and compassionate care leave; income during the leave comes separately from federal EI benefits, not from the employer.
Individual Termination: Notice and Pay in Lieu (CLC Part III, s.230) — Since February 1, 2024, federally regulated employers terminating an employee without just cause owe graduated notice or pay in lieu of 2 to 8 weeks, on top of — not instead of — severance pay.
Severance Pay (CLC Part III, s.235) — A federally regulated employee with 12 months' service who is terminated is owed severance pay — the greater of 2 days' wages per completed year or 5 days' wages — on top of termination notice, at any employer size.
Group / Mass Termination (CLC Part III, Division IX, s.212) — Terminating 50 or more employees at one location within a 4-week window triggers a 16-week Ministerial notice and a joint planning committee, on top of — not instead of — each affected employee's individual notice and severance.
The Internal Responsibility System and the General Duty (CLC Part II) — CLC Part II replaces the Ontario OHSA for federal employers and rests on the internal responsibility system — shared employer and employee responsibility for health and safety, anchored by the employer's general duty to protect every employee and a fixed hierarchy for preventing hazards.
The Hazard Prevention Program (CLC Part II) — Federal employers must develop, implement, and monitor a hazard prevention program sized to their workplace and its hazards, built in consultation with the health and safety committee or representative — and a workplace-specific version where the general program doesn't cover a hazard unique to that location.
Health and Safety Committees and Representatives: Headcount Thresholds (CLC Part II) — Federal employers structure health and safety participation by headcount — a representative under 20 employees, a workplace committee at 20 or more, and an additional policy committee once the employer reaches 300 employees across Canada.
Work Refusals and the Internal Complaint Resolution Process (CLC Part II) — Federal employees can refuse dangerous work, and Part II routes health and safety problems through an internal resolution process before any outside escalation, with reprisal against an employee for exercising these rights prohibited.
Hazardous Occurrence Investigation and Reporting (CLC Part II) — Federal employers investigate every accident, occupational disease, and hazardous occurrence, report the serious ones by phone within 24 hours and in writing within 14 days, and file an annual report to the Labour Program even in a year with zero incidents.
Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations — In force since January 1, 2021, this regime binds every federally regulated employer regardless of size and requires a joint workplace assessment, a written prevention policy, training, a resolution process with a one-year completion deadline, emergency procedures, and an annual report to the Minister of Labour.
Federal Pay Equity Act: Applicability and the 10-Employee Threshold — The federal Pay Equity Act applies to all federally regulated employers, public and private, with 10 or more employees, and requires them to proactively identify and close gender-based pay gaps rather than wait for a complaint — a different statute from Ontario's Pay Equity Act, with different mechanics.
Pay Equity Plan: Posting Deadline, Extensions and Committee — Covered federal employers had to post a final pay equity plan within three years of becoming subject to the Act — September 3, 2024 for most — after a 60-day draft comment period, with a pay equity committee required for unionized or 100-or-more-employee workplaces.
Pay Equity: Annual Statement, Maintenance Cycle and the Pay Equity Commissioner — Once a pay equity plan is posted, the ongoing duties are an annual statement to the Pay Equity Commissioner due each June 30 and a full maintenance update at least every five years, administered by the Commissioner's office inside the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Employment Equity Act: The 100-Employee Threshold and Annual Report — Federally regulated private-sector employers and Crown corporations with 100 or more employees must analyze their workforce against four designated groups, maintain an employment equity plan, and file an annual report by June 1 — an obligation that doesn't apply at all below 100 employees.
Employment Equity Act: Reform Status — A government-commissioned task force recommended adding new designated groups and updating terminology, and Ottawa has announced its intent to act on that, but as of mid-2026 none of it is in force — the four original designated groups remain the current law.
Canadian Human Rights Act: Prohibited Grounds and the Duty to Accommodate — Federally regulated employers follow the Canadian Human Rights Act instead of the Ontario Human Rights Code — it lists its own prohibited grounds of discrimination and carries the same duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship.
Canadian Human Rights Commission: Complaint Process and How It Connects to Equity Obligations — Discrimination complaints against federally regulated employers go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which can investigate, help settle, dismiss, or refer a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal — the same Commission also administers the Pay Equity and Accessible Canada Acts.
Accessible Canada Act: Applicability and the Planning/Reporting Cycle — The Accessible Canada Act governs accessibility for federally regulated organizations in place of Ontario's AODA, and runs on a repeating 3-year cycle of an accessibility plan, two progress reports, and an updated plan.
Accessible Canada Act: Employer-Size Thresholds and Deadlines — First-plan deadlines under the Accessible Canada Act were phased by employer size — June 1, 2023 for 100 or more employees and June 1, 2024 for 10 to 99 — and organizations with 9 or fewer employees have no plan or reporting obligation at all.
Payroll, CPP and EI: What's Actually Different for a Federally Regulated Employer — CPP, EI and income-tax remittance mechanics are identical whether an employer is federally or provincially regulated — the genuine federal-employer deltas sit in the labour-standards layer instead, in the minimum wage and in how termination and severance entitlements interact with the Wage Earner Protection Program.
Federal Labour Program Enforcement Tools (CLC) — The federal Labour Program enforces the Canada Labour Code along a compliance continuum — education, compliance orders, payment orders for unpaid wages, administrative monetary penalties, and prosecution for serious cases — with the statutory obligation and the enforcement consequence always kept as separate, separately sourced claims.
Administrative Monetary Penalties (Part IV): Framework and Baseline Schedule — Part IV of the Canada Labour Code sets administrative monetary penalties for designated violations, classified Type A through Type E and scaled by employer size, with a repeat-violation multiplier and a $250,000 statutory cap per penalty.
CLC Part II Prosecutions and Maximum Penalties — Serious Part II health-and-safety contraventions can be prosecuted, with maximum fines up to $1,000,000 and/or up to two years' imprisonment for the most serious offences; real, named prosecutions include Rogers Communications ($260,000), Logistec Arrimage/Stevedoring ($300,000), and Ken Johnson Trucking ($125,000).
Real Federal AMP Enforcement Examples — Published administrative monetary penalty examples from the Labour Program's public-naming page show the AMP grid in practice, from a single $36,000 notice to $87,000 for a failure to give reasonable assistance — but the list ages: names are removed roughly two years after payment and confirmed compliance.