Under Alberta’s Employment Standards Code, employee rights include a minimum wage, limits on daily hours, paid overtime, vacation and general holiday pay, unpaid job-protected leaves, and written notice or pay when employment ends. These are floor standards. No contract, offer letter, or private agreement can lawfully give you less, and a clause that tries to waive them is void.1Government of Alberta Queen’s Printer. Employment Standards Code – RSA 2000 Chapter E-9
The Code applies to most workplaces in Alberta, whether you work full-time, part-time, or casually. Retail, restaurants, construction, professional offices, and similar provincial employers are all covered. Federally regulated industries, such as banks, airlines, telecommunications, and interprovincial transportation, follow the Canada Labour Code instead.2Government of Canada. List of Federally Regulated Industries and Workplaces A few groups within the provincial system have modified rules: farm and ranch workers are exempt from hours-of-work and overtime protections,3Alberta.ca. Farm and Ranch – Employment Standards Exceptions and domestic employees in a private home are exempt from overtime and maximum-hours rules while keeping breaks and days of rest.4Alberta.ca. Domestic Employees – Employment Standards Exceptions
Minimum Wage and Pay Statements
Alberta’s general minimum wage is $15.00 per hour. Students under 18 may be paid $13.00 per hour for the first 28 hours worked in a week during a school week; every hour past 28 must be paid at $15.00.5Alberta.ca. Employment Standards Rules – Minimum Wage Alberta has not announced a change to these rates for 2026.
You are entitled to a written pay statement at the end of every pay period. It has to show the pay period covered, regular and overtime hours, any hours taken as time off in lieu, wage and overtime rates, each component of your earnings, and every deduction with a reason attached.6Alberta.ca. Employment Standards – Sample Pay Statement
Deductions are tightly limited. Your employer can only take amounts required by law, such as income tax, CPP, and EI, or amounts you have specifically authorized in writing. Deductions for broken equipment, till shortages, or customer walkouts are not allowed if anyone besides you had access to the money or property. Your employer must also keep records of your hours and wages for at least three years.
Hours, Breaks, and Days of Rest
A workday cannot exceed 12 consecutive hours. Your break entitlement depends on shift length:7Alberta.ca. Employment Standards Tool Kit – Module 3 – Hours of Work and Rest
- 5 hours or less: no break required.
- More than 5 but less than 10 hours: one 30-minute break.
- 10 hours or more: two 30-minute breaks.
If you and your employer both agree, one 30-minute break can be split into two 15-minute breaks.
Weekly rest is mandatory but flexible. You must get at least one day of rest per work week, two consecutive days off in every two-week period, three consecutive days off in every three-week period, or four consecutive days off in every four-week period. After 24 consecutive days worked, you are entitled to at least four consecutive days of rest.
Overtime Pay
Overtime is paid after 8 hours in a day or 44 hours in a week, whichever produces more overtime hours, at 1.5 times your regular wage.8Alberta.ca. Employment Standards Rules – Overtime Hours and Overtime Pay
You and your employer can agree in writing to bank overtime as paid time off instead of cash. Each overtime hour becomes one hour of time off, and you must use it within six months of the pay period in which it was earned. If you don’t, or if you leave the job with hours still in the bank, your employer must pay those hours out at 1.5 times your regular rate.9Alberta.ca. Employment Standards Tool Kit – Overtime Hours and Overtime Pay
A written averaging arrangement can spread hours over up to 52 weeks and can modify or remove the daily 8-hour trigger. The 44-hour weekly average still caps the arrangement, and the agreement has to spell out the schedule, the overtime calculation, and how much notice your employer must give before changing the schedule.10Alberta.ca. Employment Standards Rules – Averaging Arrangements
Vacation Pay
After one year with the same employer, you earn two weeks of paid vacation and vacation pay worth 4% of your gross wages for the year. At five years of continuous service, that rises to three weeks and 6%. Because vacation pay is based on gross earnings, it includes overtime and holiday pay, not just your regular wages. When your job ends for any reason, accrued vacation pay must be included in your final earnings.
General Holiday Pay
Alberta recognizes nine general holidays: New Year’s Day, Alberta Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, and Christmas Day. To qualify for holiday pay, you must have worked for the same employer for at least 30 workdays in the 12 months before the holiday.11Alberta.ca. Employment Standards – Alberta General Holidays
If you don’t work on the holiday, you receive your average daily wage, calculated by taking your total wages over the four weeks before the holiday (including vacation pay but not overtime) and dividing by the days you actually worked in that period. If you do work on the holiday, you get your average daily wage plus 1.5 times your regular hourly rate for every hour worked.
Job-Protected Leaves
The Code provides several unpaid leaves that protect your position. Most require 90 days of employment with the same employer before you qualify.12Alberta.ca. Job-Protected Leaves While you are on any protected leave, your job tenure and benefits keep accruing, and your employer cannot terminate or lay you off because you took or asked for the leave. When you return, you are entitled to your former position or an equivalent one at the same rate of pay.
A birth mother can take up to 16 weeks of maternity leave. Either parent can then take up to 62 weeks of parental leave, with 62 weeks as the combined cap when parents share it. These leaves are unpaid provincially; most employees claim federal Employment Insurance benefits during the time off.
Personal and family responsibility leave gives you up to five days per year for your own health or to care for a close family member. Bereavement leave is three days after the death of a family member. Domestic violence leave is up to 10 unpaid days per calendar year when domestic violence affects you, your dependent child, or a protected adult who lives with you. Unused days don’t roll over, and you have to give your employer reasonable notice.13Alberta.ca. Domestic Violence Leave
Long-term illness and injury leave changes on January 1, 2026. From that date, employees with a serious medical condition can take up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave per calendar year, up from the previous 16-week maximum. You need 90 days of employment to qualify, though your employer can grant it sooner.14Alberta.ca. Long-Term Illness and Injury Leave
Termination, Layoffs, and Final Pay
When your employer ends your job without cause, they owe you written notice or pay in lieu, on a sliding scale:15Alberta.ca. Employment Standards – Termination and Lay-Off
- 90 days or less of service: none.
- More than 90 days but less than 2 years: 1 week.
- 2 to less than 4 years: 2 weeks.
- 4 to less than 6 years: 4 weeks.
- 6 to less than 8 years: 5 weeks.
- 8 to less than 10 years: 6 weeks.
- 10 years or more: 8 weeks.
These are statutory minimums. Alberta courts can award considerably more under common law “reasonable notice,” which factors in your age, length of service, seniority, and how easy it is to find comparable work. For long-tenured or senior employees, the common law figure frequently exceeds what the Code sets out.
If you quit, you also owe notice: none in the first 90 days, one week after that up to two years, and two weeks once you have been there two years or more.
A temporary layoff is a pause, not a termination, but only up to a point. If a layoff runs longer than 90 days within any 120-day period, it converts into a termination and your employer owes you the same notice or pay in lieu they would owe for a without-cause firing. Rolling layoffs that stretch past that window are a common source of unpaid claims.
All outstanding earnings, including accrued vacation pay, must be paid within 10 calendar days after the end of the pay period in which your job ended, or within 31 calendar days after your last day, whichever comes first.
Filing a Complaint if Your Rights Are Not Met
If your employer isn’t meeting these standards, you can file an employment standards complaint at no cost through the Alberta.ca online portal. You can file while still employed or up to six months after your last day of work.16Alberta.ca. File an Employment Standards Complaint
Before you file, pull together your pay stubs, employment contract or offer letter, records of hours worked, and any written communication with your employer about the dispute. The form asks you to identify the issues, such as unpaid wages or missing overtime, and calculate what you believe you are owed. Weak documentation or bad math will slow things down.
After you submit, an Employment Standards officer checks that you are within the six-month deadline and that your employer is provincially regulated. The officer may try to mediate. If that fails, a formal investigation follows. Straightforward wage claims tend to resolve faster than disputes over hours calculations or leave entitlements.
Appealing a Decision
If you disagree with the officer’s decision, you have 21 calendar days from the day you were served the notice to file a written appeal. If the deadline falls on a day government offices are closed, it moves to the next business day. Your appeal has to explain clearly why you think the officer got it wrong. The province’s online appeal portal is the fastest way to file.17Alberta.ca. Employment Standards – Appeal a Decision