This guide will help you ensure your business is keeping up with Saskatchewan’s payroll laws and regulations. These include: the provincial payroll deductions and remittances you are required to make, and what your employees are entitled to when it comes to hours (as per the Saskatchewan Employment Act), benefits and vacation pay. 

Minimum Wage Saskatchewan

In June 2021, the province announced an increase in minimum wage to $11.81 per hour, taking effect on October 1 of the same year. 

This minimum wage increase is the 13th to happen in Saskatchewan since 2007, with a total increase of over 48%. 

Hours of Work

Employers are responsible for providing employees with work scheduled no later than one week before the schedule date starts. However, employers can change employee schedules with less than one week notice in unexpected or emergency situations arise. For example, suppose a large storm forces an employer to close down their business temporarily, they can notify their employees not to report to work with little notice. 

These work schedules must cover a minimum of one week (seven consecutive days) and the it must state: 

• When work shifts start and end every day 
• When meal breaks start and end 

Employers can provide schedules to employees personally, post them in the workplace, post them online using a secure website portal that employees can access, or show them in any other manner that will inform employees of this information. 

Employers must provide all employees with at least eight consecutive hours of rest in any given 24 hour period. Unless there is an emergency, employees are always entitled to this break.

• Maximum hours: 44 hours per week is the maximum for any employee, unless the employee consents to more hours in an employer agreement. This does not include statutory hours from overtime.
• Overtime hours: Any hours worked over 12 hours per day, or 40 hours per week (based on employer agreement) is considered overtime hours.
• Overtime rate: Employees should receive 1 ½ times their regulate rate of pay as their overtime rate of pay.
• Meal break: Employees that work 6 hours or more in a day must be given a ½ hour break every 5 hours worked consecutively.
• Rest period: 8 hours of rest must be given between shifts, unless an emergency situation arises.

Workers Compensation Saskatchewan

The Employer’s Payroll Statement (EPS) reports the business’s actual wages covering the precious year. It also provides an estimate for the upcoming calendar year so the WCB can determine the business’s premiums for work injury coverages. The WCB must receive the EPS by February 28th of each year. All employers with existing employer accounts with the WCB are required to fill in and submit this form. The payroll estimate should accurately reflect what the employer pays to their workers up to the maximum assessable wage rate (per employee), which has been set by the WCB each year. 

Such assessable earnings cover gross earnings before deductions are made as part of income tax, pension plans, employment insurance, and other expenses. Earnings can include regular salaries and wages, commissions, bonuses, piecework fees, and other payments and taxable benefits. On the worker’s T4 slip, Box 14 should depict the correct assessable amounts. 

The Assessable Earnings (POL 24/2010), which is the WCB’s policy, provides information on which amounts are categorized as assessable and which ones are not. 

Payroll Tax Deductions and Remittances in Saskatchewan

Deductions required by law include:

• Income Tax
• Employment Insurance (EI)
• Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

Other deductions that are allowable include: 

• Employee contributions to registered retirement savings plans and pensions plans, as well as other benefit plans 
• Court-ordered maintenance payments 
• Employees making voluntary charitable contributions
• Employees making voluntary contributions to savings plans or bond purchases
• Initiation fees, assessments, and dues to a union acting as a bargaining agent for the employee
• Employee purchases made to employers for any services, goods, or merchandise 

An employer cannot, directly or indirectly, deduct, withhold, or require payment of part or all of an employee’s wages for any purpose, unless the employer has obtained a court order. Examples of deductions that are not allowed include:

• Damage or breakage
• Theft
• Low quality work
• Inability to collect custom payments, including shoplifting and ‘dine-and-dashes’
• Damages to employer property, including accidents involving employer equipment or vehicles 

Employers that require their employees to wear special clothing or uniforms that identify the employer’s business must be provided at no cost to employees. Employers cannot charge deposits for these uniforms. 

Employers that require staff to wear certain clothing, like black shirts, pants, and skirts, or a white blouse that can all be worn off the job are not categorized as uniforms. 

Finally, employers in hotels, restaurants, educational institutions, hospitals, or nursing homes that require employees to wear a uniform, must provide, repair, and launder said uniforms at no extra costs to employees. However, registered nurses are exempt from the provision.

Saskatchewan Pay Statements 

Employers must have regularly scheduled paydays in which they pay all of the employees their wages owed. Wages must be paid in Canadian dollars, whether by cheque or by direct deposit.

Employers have to provide a statement of earnings or pay stubs to employees every pay day and when making wage adjustments. Employers must also keep and maintain the business’s payroll records. 

The province of Saskatchewan does not have any legislation dictating the pay period or pay frequency. However, Saskatchewan pay statements but include the following information: 

• Pay period dates
• Wages paid for regular wages, overtime pay, public holiday pay, hours worked on public holidays, vacation pay, and pay in lieu of notice 
• Hours worked for regular schedules, overtime, and public holidays 
• Rate of pay 
• Deductions made in an itemized list with descriptions 
• Gross earnings
• Both the employee’s name and the employer’s name 

Leave of Absence in Saskatchewan

Termination Notice

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