Most employees in Manitoba fall under provincial jurisdiction. The legislation covers employees, people who are employed by employers to do work. Independent contractors are not employees and the legislation does not apply to them.
Parts of legislation do not apply to; agriculture workers, baby sitters, professionals, part-time domestic workers, family members employed in family businesses, some provincial civil servants and temporary election workers. Some employees work in industries that are regulated by the federal rather than the provincial government. These employees are not affected by Manitoba's Employment Standards legislation.
Yes, the legislation sets only the minimum workplace standards that must be respected. Many employers provide more benefits, or pay higher wages.
Yes, an employer can provide an electronic pay statement if employees have easy and confidential access. An employer needs to consider the security of the information if they are sending pay statements electronically.
An employer who wants to provide a pay statement electronically must ensure that,
People under 16 years of age require a permit from the Employment Standards Branch before they can work. Children under 12 years of age are only issued permits in special circumstances.
People under 18 years of age are prohibited from:
People under 16 years of age are prohibited from:
More information on employment permits and employment of young people can be found on the Young Employees page.
Employees must be paid at least semi-monthly (twice a month) and within 10 days of the end of a pay period.
Employers cannot charge interest or fees for cashing cheques or providing payroll advances. Employers cannot recover business expenses from the wages of employees. For example an employer cannot deduct for cash or inventory shortages, uniforms, or damages.
Standard hours of work are the maximum number of hours employees may be required to work at regular wage. In most cases, it is eight hours in a day and 40 hours in a week. Hours worked over the standard hours are considered overtime hours.
Employers who ask or allow employees to work longer than the standard hours of work must pay these employees 1 ½ times their regular hourly wage for each hour worked during overtime.
Employers make or approve work schedules. Sometimes employers involve employees in schedule decisions, but are not required to do so.
Employees must receive a 30 minute unpaid break after every five hours of work. This is the only break required. Many employers will provide coffee breaks, cigarette breaks or other meal breaks. These are allowed as a benefit, but they are not required.
Employees are on their own time during breaks. Employees must be free of all responsibility and be able to leave the workplace during their breaks.
General holiday pay is five percent of an employee’s total wages in the four-week period immediately before the holiday. Overtime should not be included in this calculation.
For a part-time employee, this amounts to a percentage of his/her regular day of pay. For example: a part-time employee may work about 25 hours each week at $10 per hour, but his/her schedule is different each day. In the four weeks before the holiday, he/she earned $1,000. General holiday pay is $1,000 times five per cent, or $50.
For an employee that works the same number of hours, every day, five days a week, the five per cent calculation will equal his/her regular day of pay. For example: an employee worked 8 hours a day, 5 days a week at $10 per hour, for the previous 28 days, he/she earned $1,600. General holiday pay is $1,600 times five per cent, or $80.
After completing one year with an employer employees must receive two weeks of vacation. After completing their fifth year of work with the same employer, employees must receive three weeks of vacation.
Vacation pay is calculated based on the earnings in the previous year. For each week of vacation, employees earn two per cent of their gross wages as vacation pay. For example: employees who earn two weeks of vacation receive four per cent of their gross wages as vacation pay. Employees with three weeks vacation receive six per cent of their gross wages as vacation pay.
Yes, employers can and often do give employees more vacation than is required by Employment Standards. The minimum amount of vacation employers can provide does not increase beyond 3 weeks of vacation after 5 years of service, employers can choose to provide more if they wish.
Employers may pay vacation pay on every pay cheque. Employees are still entitled to take time off as vacation, but do not receive any additional vacation pay while they are off, because it has already been paid on each cheque.
Yes. The amount of notice depends on how long they’ve been employed by the same employer:
at least 30 days but less than one year
