Minimum wage by province in Canada (2026 and 2027): current rates and the dates they change

Canada has fourteen minimum wages, one for each province and territory and one for federally regulated workplaces, and no two are the same. Today they run from $15.00 per hour in Alberta, unchanged since October 1, 2018, to $20.17 per hour in Nunavut. Ontario's is $17.95 per hour, British Columbia's $18.25 per hour, Quebec's $16.60 per hour, and the federal rate is $18.15 per hour. Most of them move once a year on a fixed date, and the first changes of 2027 come on April 1. The table below gives each rate, the date it took effect, the next change and the official source. This page is part of the severance pay hub, because every amount owed when a job ends is built from your wages.

Updated November 1, 2026 · Figures verified against the statutes of each jurisdiction · see all figures and their sources · what's new

Reviewed on November 1, 2026.

Which minimum wage applies to you

The rate is set by where your work is regulated, not by where your employer has its head office. Most people work under the employment standards law of their province or territory, and that law's minimum wage is the one that counts.

If you work for a federally regulated employer, such as a bank, an airline, a railway, a telecom company, an interprovincial trucking firm or a Crown corporation, the Canada Labour Code applies instead. Its rate is $18.15 per hour, but it is a floor, not a ceiling: when the general minimum wage of the province or territory where you usually work is higher, your employer has to pay that higher rate (CLC s. 178). The table shows where the local rate is above the federal one today.

A minimum wage is an hourly figure, but it protects you however you're paid. The federal Code applies it to anyone paid on a basis other than the hour (CLC s. 178), and the Ontario and Quebec guides apply the same test to commission and piece rates: what you earn in a pay period has to come to at least the minimum wage for the hours you worked (ontario.ca, minimum wage, CNESST, minimum wage).

When the rates change in 2027

Most of the rates change on a date fixed in advance by a statute, a regulation or an order. The amount is announced a few weeks or months before; the date is already known.

• April 1, 2027: the federal rate, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon all adjust for inflation on this date. Prince Edward Island also rises that day, and its new rate is already set: $17.60 per hour (PEI Minimum Wage Order EC2026-379).
• June 1, 2027: British Columbia adjusts by the province's own inflation figure (BC ESA s. 16.2).
• September 1, 2027: Nunavut adjusts by its formula, and the Northwest Territories has applied its own yearly formula on the same date.
• October 1, 2027: Ontario and Manitoba adjust by inflation (ESA s. 23.1, MB ESC s. 7), and Saskatchewan has moved on the same date in recent years when cabinet sets a new rate.
• No fixed date: Quebec changes its rate by government regulation, recently with effect on May 1, and Alberta only when cabinet amends the regulation.

Where a new 2027 rate has not been published yet, the table above says so rather than guessing it. A rate that has been officially set appears with its date as soon as it is announced, and every figure on the site carries the date it was last checked.

How each rate is set

The fourteen systems fall into three groups, and the group tells you how predictable the next change is.

Indexed by law

The federal rate goes up every April 1 by the change in Canada's Consumer Price Index for the previous year, rounded up to the nearest five cents, and it can never go down (CLC s. 178.1). Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia index theirs to their own provincial prices, on October 1, October 1 and June 1 (ESA s. 23.1, MB ESC s. 7, BC ESA s. 16.2). New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador adjust every April 1 under their regulations (NB Reg. 2022-15 s. 6, NL Labour Standards Regulations, s. 8). Nova Scotia finished a fixed schedule of increases in October 2026 and switches to the projected index plus one percentage point from April 1, 2027 (NS Minimum Wage Order, s. 6). Nunavut's regulation uses a mix of local wages and Iqaluit prices every September 1 (Nunavut Wages Regulations, s. 5).

Set by a board

In Prince Edward Island the Employment Standards Board sets the rate by order, with cabinet approval, and has to review it at least once a year (PEI ESA s. 20). Yukon's rate is also set by its Employment Standards Board (Yukon ESA ss. 17–18), which raises it every April 1 by Whitehorse's inflation rate.

Set by the government

Alberta's rate sits in a regulation and changes only when cabinet amends it (Alta. Reg. 14/1997 s. 9). Quebec's government sets the rate by regulation, usually once a year, with no formula in the law (Quebec labour standards regulation, s. 3). Saskatchewan has a formula that weighs prices and average wages equally, but cabinet decides each year whether to apply it, and if it does nothing the rate stays put (SK Reg s. 9-1). The Northwest Territories changes its rate by amending its regulations, using a yearly formula the government has chosen to follow (NWT R-092-2026).

Lower rates for students and tipped workers

A few jurisdictions set a different rate for particular groups. Only the ones written into the regulation or the government's own page are listed here.

British Columbia used to have a lower rate for liquor servers. It was abolished in 2021, and servers there now get the general minimum wage plus their tips (gov.bc.ca, minimum wage). In Quebec, an employer may pay a lower rate to an employee who receives tips (Quebec labour standards regulation, s. 4).

What the minimum wage has to do with what you're owed when your job ends

Every statutory amount owed at the end of a job is a multiple of your wages. Pay in lieu of notice, vacation pay, holiday pay and, in Ontario and federally, severance pay are all worked out from what you earned. If you were paid at or near the minimum wage, the minimum wage is where those amounts start.

Three things follow from that. First, your final pay has to cover every hour you worked in the last pay period at no less than the rate in force on the day you worked it. Second, if the minimum wage goes up while you're working out your notice, the new rate applies to the hours you work after the change, because you're still employed. Third, if you were paid less than the minimum for any hours, the shortfall is unpaid wages, and it is owed on top of everything else in the final pay.

A worked example in Ontario. Priya works 40 hours a week at the Ontario minimum wage of $17.95 per hour. After two years her employer ends the job without notice. The Act owes her 2 weeks of notice, and her employer chooses to pay instead, so her termination pay is 2 weeks × 40 hours × $17.95 per hour = $1,436.00 (ESA s. 61). She also earned $9,000 since her vacation pay was last paid out, so she is owed 4% of it in vacation pay: $360.00 (ESA s. 35.2).

A federally regulated example. Tom works for an airline's ground crew in Iqaluit. The Canada Labour Code governs his job, but the Nunavut minimum wage of $20.17 per hour is higher than the federal $18.15 per hour, so the Nunavut rate is his floor (CLC s. 178). If he is let go, his pay in lieu of notice is worked out from wages that can't be below that rate.

The notice, severance, vacation pay and final pay deadline for your own jurisdiction are on its page: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and federally regulated workplaces. Each one also gives the deadline for filing a complaint about unpaid wages, which is where an underpaid minimum wage is claimed. The severance pay calculator works out your own figures from your pay.