Are unpaid internships legal in Ontario?

In Ontario an unpaid internship is generally unlawful, whatever the arrangement is called. The test is not the name on the offer letter. It is what happens in the workplace. Ontario's Employment Standards Act guide on employee status says that someone called an intern or a trainee "will generally be considered to be an employee under the ESA if they receive training from an employer" and "are being trained in a skill that is used by the employer's employees." An employee is entitled to minimum wage.

This is a description of published rules, not legal advice. Whether the Act applies to a particular arrangement turns on facts that cannot be read off a posting, and a real answer comes from the ministry or from a lawyer.

The test is the work, not the label

The guide is blunt about naming. "The fact that someone is called an 'intern' or a 'trainee' does not determine whether that person is an employee and entitled to the protections of the ESA." It says the same about volunteers: the fact that someone is called a "volunteer" does not determine whether that person is an employee. And it rejects the inference people most often rely on, which is that unpaid means unpaid by law. "The fact that no wages were paid does not necessarily mean that someone is a volunteer."

What the guide asks instead is whether the work is an important part of the business, whether the business decides what you do, where and when you work and what you are paid, whether it provides the tools, whether you can subcontract the work out, and whether it can discipline or dismiss you.

The Act's definition of employee lists five categories, and the third catches internships: a person who receives training from an employer, if the skill being trained is one the employer's employees use.

The 2017 rewrite is what closed the old escape route. Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, received Royal Assent on 2017-11-27, and repealed the six-part trainee exception that had allowed an unpaid trainee outside the Act. In Schedule 1 it repealed clause (c) of the definition of employee and substituted the single narrow condition quoted above. There is no longer a route out based on satisfying six separate conditions.

Two consequences are worth knowing. The Act now bars an employer from treating an employee "as if the person were not an employee under this Act," and where an employer claims you are not an employee, section 5.1(2) of Bill 148 puts the burden of proof on the employer rather than on you. An employment standards officer can issue a notice of contravention that results in a penalty, a prosecution, or both.

One scope limit. The ESA governs provincially regulated work. Federally regulated employers, including banks, airlines and railways, fall under the Canada Labour Code instead, per the ESA policy and interpretation manual. Everything below concerns provincially regulated Ontario work.

The exceptions are narrow, and they are real

This section matters more than the rest. A page that told a co-op student their paid placement was illegal would be its own kind of harm, and the exclusions are not a grey area. They are listed in the ESA policy and interpretation manual, Part III under section 3(5):

• Secondary school work experience. A secondary school student performing work under a work experience program authorized by the school board that operates their school. The manual notes such programs may be called practicums or co-ops.
• Work under a program approved by an Ontario college of applied arts and technology or an Ontario university. Whether the people doing the work are students at the college that approved the program, or at any college, is irrelevant. The manual is explicit that the exclusion does not reach programs of institutions outside Ontario.
• Work under a program approved by a private career college registered under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005. Bill 148 added this, effective 2018-01-01. The manual notes that as of its writing no criteria had been prescribed.
• Ontario Works community participation activities. Two conditions: the individual must be in receipt of social assistance, and must be participating in community participation activities. The manual draws a firm line: people "merely referred by Ontario Works to a job placement agency or into training, or who are merely placed with an employer, do not fall into the exemption." Working conditions for these participants are set by Ontario Works and are the responsibility of the Ministry of Community and Social Services, not the Ministry of Labour.

If you are a student in an approved college, university or registered private career college program, or in a secondary school work experience program authorized by your school board, you are in one of the excluded categories. This post is not about you, and your placement is not unlawful for being unpaid.

Two details in the manual catch people, and both are easy to miss.

The exclusion covers only the work performed under the program. If you are in an approved program and also work extra hours at the same employer, those hours are covered by the Act. The manual treats this under "Dual Roles" at section 3(6), with an example of a student doing five hours a day of program work and six of clerical work for the same company, and the Act applying to the clerical hours.

And being sent by a school career centre is not an exclusion. The manual states that the exclusion "will not apply just because an employee obtained their job through an employment or career counselling centre at a school, college or university."

Trial shifts are paid work

Since 2024-03-21 the Act's definition of employee also covers a person who performs work during a trial period, if the skills being assessed are skills the employer's employees use, or could be used if there were no other employees. The guide on employee status gives the example directly: a restaurant asks a candidate to work a trial shift waiting tables to demonstrate their ability, and "even where no employment offer has been made to that candidate, the person is an employee under the ESA."

Stated plainly: if an employer assesses you by having you do the work, that is work, and the Act's standards apply to it. That describes what the legislation provides for, not an accusation about any particular employer. The guide's example is about the reach of the law, not about a common abuse.

The money

From 2026-10-01 to 2027-09-30 the general minimum wage in Ontario is $17.95 an hour and the student minimum wage is $16.90 an hour, per the ESA minimum wage guide. For 2025-10-01 to 2026-09-30 the rates are $17.60 and $16.60.

The student rate has conditions and they are narrow. Per the ESA minimum wage guide it applies to students under the age of 18 who work 28 hours a week or less when school is in session, or who work during a school break or summer holiday. Two things follow. An 18-year-old does not qualify for it. And, per the policy manual, the student minimum wage applies only to a student who is not already excluded under section 3(5), so an adult co-op student in an approved program is outside the Act rather than on the lower rate.

Rates are indexed annually to the Consumer Price Index, with new rates published on or before 2026-04-01 and taking effect 2026-10-01. Compliance is measured on a pay period basis, and if a change lands partway through one, that period is treated as two separate pay periods, so you must be paid at least the applicable minimum in each. A placement spanning 2026-09-30 and 2026-10-01 therefore has two rates across its hours.

The rest of the Act follows from employee status rather than from the job title. The guide lists the entitlements of a person considered an employee as minimum wage, overtime pay, public holidays, vacation with pay, and notice of termination or termination pay. Severance pay is a separate entitlement with its own conditions. Under the ESA severance guide you qualify only if your employment is severed, you have worked for the employer five or more years, and the employer either has a global payroll of at least $2.5 million or severed the employment of 50 or more employees in a six-month period because all or part of the business permanently closed. Employee status opens the door; it does not hand you everything in the building.

One caution on top of all of it. The Act sets minimum standards only. A contract, a collective agreement, or the common law may give you more.

What to actually do

• Keep the offer in writing. The terms, the hours, the rate, whether it is paid, the length, and who supervises you. If the arrangement is ever disputed, the file is what you have.
• Find out whether the program is approved, and by whom. Ask the specific question: is this placement under a work experience program approved by a college, a university or a registered private career college, or authorized by my school board? If yes, get the name of the approving body. An employer calling a placement a co-op is not the same thing as an institution approving a program.
• Ask whether you are an employee and what you are paid. A plain question works: am I an employee under the ESA, and what rate applies to me?
• Take the ambiguity to the ministry. The Employment Standards Information Centre answers 416-326-7160, toll free 1-800-531-5551, TTY 1-866-567-8893, in multiple languages, according to the guide on employee status. The guide is candid about the limit of what you will get there: the Centre "can give general information about who is an employee but cannot provide advice." For advice on your own facts, the same page tells you to talk to a lawyer.

That is the short version, and it is worth stating once more. This is a description of published rules, not legal advice. The Employment Standards Act itself and the Ministry of Labour's guide to it are the sources, and the ministry is where a real answer comes from.