What Your Hourly Wage Actually Pays in Ontario
Ontario’s general minimum wage is $17.60 an hour and rises to $17.95 on 1 October 2026. On the current rate a full-time worker keeps $14.62 an hour after deductions — $2.98 an hour less than the number on the job posting.
Step 1 of 2
What an hour of your time is actually worth
Ontario
You keep
$14.62
an hour, after deductions
Quoted $17.60 · you lose $2.98 an hour · keep 83.1%
That is $1,169.58 every two weeks, from $1,408.00 gross.
Off one cheque, then the year
- Federal tax $86.63
- Ontario tax $53.07
- CPP $75.77
- EI $22.95
- Gross a year $36,608
- Deductions a year $6,199
- Net a year $30,409
That is exactly the Ontario minimum wage. It rises to $17.95 on 1 October 2026.
$14.62 an hour after deductions, from $17.60 gross. $30,409 a year.
Deductions take $2.98 of every hour you work. If payday is still a way off, NotchUp can advance up to $1,500 of wages you have already earned for a $5 flat fee.
See what you could advance- $14.62kept from $17.60
- 83.1%of the quoted rate
- $30,409a year at 40 h/week
Published in April, effective in October
Ontario indexes the minimum wage to the provincial Consumer Price Index. The new figure is published on or before 1 April and takes effect the following 1 October, so the rate is known six months before anyone is paid it.
The 2026 increase takes the general rate from $17.60 to $17.95, a rise of $0.35 an hour. The government put the number of affected workers at more than 700,000.
The general rate is not the only rate
Ontario keeps separate minimums for students under 18 working 28 hours a week or less during the school term, for homeworkers doing paid work in their own home, and for hunting, fishing and wilderness guides who are paid by the day rather than the hour.
The homeworker rate is higher than the general rate, not lower — it is set at 110% of it, on the reasoning that a homeworker absorbs costs an employer would otherwise carry. The separate lower rate for liquor servers was abolished in 2022.
What the rate leaves after deductions
Forty hours a week at $17.60 is $36,608 a year gross and $30,409 net. Divided back over the hours, that is $14.62 an hour, or 83.1% of what you were quoted.
When the rate rises in October the gross gain is $0.35 an hour, but tax and contributions apply to the increase as well, so the take-home gain is smaller. The calculator will show you the real figure if you enter the new rate.
Biweekly pay is not monthly pay
Twenty-six cheques a year do not divide evenly into twelve months. Two months carry three paydays and ten carry two, so dividing your annual net by twelve overstates ten months of the year.
At $17.60 an hour each cheque is $1,169.58 net. A monthly average of that income looks comfortably higher than what actually arrives in most months.
Frequently asked questions
What is $17.60 an hour after taxes in Ontario?
About $14.62 an hour at 40 hours a week, or roughly $30,409 a year net from $36,608 gross, after federal tax, Ontario tax, CPP and EI.
When does Ontario’s minimum wage go up?
Every 1 October. The 2026 rate is $17.95, up from $17.60, and it was published in advance in the spring.
Is there still a lower minimum wage for servers in Ontario?
No. The separate liquor server rate was eliminated in 2022. Servers are entitled to the general minimum wage.
Is this what my employer will actually withhold in Ontario?
It uses the same CRA payroll formulas your employer's software does, so the statutory lines should match closely. Differences usually come from a TD1 claim other than the basic amount, or from workplace deductions this cannot see.
How many hours a week should I enter?
Your usual paid week. Hours change the answer twice over: they scale the total, and they move how much of your income reaches the higher tax brackets, so 20 hours is not simply half of 40.
Sources
Every rate, threshold and formula on this page was verified against these primary sources. If a figure here disagrees with one of them, the source is right and we want to know.