Guides
Hairdresser Stylist Rosters Canada: Ontario Scheduling
Hairdresser stylist rosters Canada-wide vary by worker classification and provincial rules. This article focuses on Ontario salon scheduling.
What to take away
- Hairdresser stylist rosters Canada-wide depend on worker classification and provincial employment standards; the scheduling details below focus on Ontario. A stylist roster is a classification document before it is a schedule, because those rules affect who can legally sit on it.
- Employees need T4 slips, CPP and EI remittances, ESA hours limits, vacation pay and termination notice. Contractors with a genuine business do not.
- Ontario's ESA pays three hours when a shift is cut short, requires 11 hours off between shifts and starts overtime after 44 hours in a week.
- HST applies to hair services once revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters.
- Tips are taxable income for the stylist but are not pensionable or insurable, so no CPP or EI is withheld from them.
Why a roster is a payroll document first
A roster is usually built for coverage. Chair hours, double bookings, colour appointments that run long. In Canada the same grid records who is an employee, what that person is owed and how many hours were worked. Get the classification wrong and it becomes evidence.
CRA reviews the working relationship rather than the label on a contract. Provincial employment standards vary across Canada; in Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Labour administers the ESA discussed below. CRA and the Ministry can look back across years of rosters, so one mislabeled column has a long tail.
What CRA looks at before it reads the contract
The four factors are control, ownership of tools, chance of profit or loss, and integration into the salon's business.
CRA classification factors
- Controlwho sets hours and prices
- Toolswho owns shears, colour, station
- Profit or lossspeed pays or quiet week costs
- Integrationwork part of salon's core business
- Contract does not override the facts
A written contract matters, but it does not override the facts. A salon that calls a stylist a contractor while setting the schedule and prices is describing an employee.
If one chair is still unclear, CRA classification tests walk through control, tools, risk and integration before a T4 or T4A is issued.
Employee or contractor: what changes on the roster
Employee or contractor
Employee
- Tax slip
- T4
- CPP and EI
- Withheld by the salon, CPP matched
- Hours
- Set by the salon
- Tools and products
- Often supplied
- Vacation and notice
- ESA entitlements apply
- HST
- Salon charges HST on the service
Contractor, such as a chair renter
- Tax slip
- T4A, or no slip when pay is under $500
- CPP and EI
- Handled by the stylist through a business account
- Hours
- Set by the renter
- Tools and products
- Supplied by the renter
- Vacation and notice
- No ESA entitlement
- HST
- Renter usually charges HST on rent
Employees also receive a pay stub, and the salon remits withholding to CRA by the 15th of the following month. Employers pay EI at 1.4 times the employee premium. Contractors invoice and manage their own instalments.
Employee vs chair renter
Employee
- Tax slip
- T4
- CPP and EI
- Salon withholds
- Hours
- Set by salon
- Tools
- Often supplied
- Vacation
- ESA applies
- HST
- On service
Contractor
- Tax slip
- T4A or none
- CPP and EI
- Stylist handles
- Hours
- Set by renter
- Tools
- Renter supplies
- Vacation
- No ESA
- HST
- On rent
ESA scheduling rules that shape the roster
The Employment Standards Act, 2000 sets the floor for Ontario salons, whatever the pay method. Commission, hourly or salary, the same scheduling rules apply.
ESA scheduling numbers
- 11 | consecutive hours off between shifts
- 24 | hours free each week
- 1.5x | pay after 44 hours
- 3 | hours minimum pay when shift cut
The Ontario Ministry of Labour's Employment Standards Act policy and interpretation manual, under hours of work, explains Ontario's hours-of-work rules. The three-hour rule is the one most owners meet after a complaint, since a slow Tuesday cut to two hours still owes three.
Ontario's Your guide to the Employment Standards Act explains record keeping: payroll records must show hours worked each day, and salons must hold them for three years.
Example: a Saturday roster that holds up
A salon schedules Amara from 9 to 5, Ben from 10 to 7 and Chloe from 12 to 8 on a Saturday. Amara is an employee on hourly plus commission, so the salon logs her break, overtime status and vacation accrual.
Ben rents a chair and invoices for the space monthly, so he sets his own hours and buys his own colour. Chloe moved from contractor to employee in spring because the owner set her prices and hours.
The booking app shows the same grid either way. The payroll file behind it does not. Before adding a service to that grid, judge whether it moves chair utilization or lifts rebooking, then test it on one roster.
HST, tips and the money nobody mentions
Hair services are taxable supplies. Once revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, a salon must register for GST/HST and charge the tax. In Ontario the rate is 13 percent.
Tips work differently. They are taxable income for the stylist, but they are not pensionable or insurable, so no CPP or EI is withheld. Salons get this wrong in both directions.
A roster problem usually shows up as a payroll problem. Three years of records, one missed three hour rule, and the correction is retroactive.
