This tool compares an offered wage with the hourly wage threshold that Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) uses to place a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) application in the high-wage or the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The threshold is the provincial or territorial median hourly wage plus 20%. The thresholds, the stream rules and the low-wage limits come from ESDC's pages "Hire a temporary foreign worker in a high-wage or low-wage position" (modified October 7, 2026), the low-wage stream requirements (modified September 22, 2026) and "Refusal to process an LMIA" (updated October 9, 2026), all checked on October 19, 2026.
| Item | Result |
|---|
ESDC hourly wage thresholds by province or territory
The threshold is the median hourly wage plus 20%, based on the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey. A position at or above the threshold is a high-wage position; below it, a low-wage position.
| Province or territory | LMIAs received June 27, 2025 to July 16, 2026 | LMIAs received as of July 17, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | $36.00 | $37.50 |
| British Columbia | $36.60 | $38.40 |
| Manitoba | $30.16 | $31.33 |
| New Brunswick | $30.00 | $31.73 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | $32.40 | $33.60 |
| Northwest Territories | $48.00 | $48.00 |
| Nova Scotia | $30.00 | $31.96 |
| Nunavut | $42.00 | $45.00 |
| Ontario | $36.00 | $36.92 |
| Prince Edward Island | $30.00 | $31.20 |
| Quebec | $34.62 | $36.00 |
| Saskatchewan | $33.60 | $34.62 |
| Yukon | $44.40 | $45.60 |
The wage must also be the prevailing wage
Passing the threshold is only the first test. ESDC requires that the wage offered to a temporary foreign worker be consistent with the prevailing wage for the occupation and the work location, which ESDC defines as the higher of the Job Bank median wage for the occupation and region and the wage the employer pays its current employees in the same job and location with the same skills and experience. Only the guaranteed wage counts: overtime, tips, benefits, bonuses and commissions are excluded, and the wage must be reviewed every year against Job Bank. ESDC's page states that offering a higher wage is not sufficient to qualify under the high-wage stream, and that adjusting the wage to fit a stream or avoid a requirement could lead to a negative LMIA decision. In practice this means:
- A job whose prevailing wage is below the threshold is a low-wage position even if the employer offers more, unless the higher wage is what the employer genuinely pays its Canadian staff for that job.
- A job whose prevailing wage is above the threshold must be offered at least at the prevailing wage; the threshold alone is not enough.
- The threshold depends on the date ESDC receives the application. An application received on or after July 17, 2026 is assessed against the new column, so a wage that was high-wage under the old column can now be low-wage (for example, $37.00 in British Columbia).
Rules that apply to low-wage positions (checked October 19, 2026)
Refusal to process in high-unemployment areas
Since September 26, 2024, ESDC does not process a low-wage LMIA when the work location is in a census metropolitan area with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher at the time of submission. Census agglomerations are not affected. ESDC publishes the list of census metropolitan areas and their unemployment rates every three months; the current list covers October 9, 2026 to January 7, 2027, and the next update is January 8, 2027. The list on October 19, 2026 has 41 census metropolitan areas.
Exceptions to the refusal
Primary agriculture; construction (NAICS 23); food manufacturing (NAICS 311); hospitals (NAICS 622); nursing and residential care facilities (NAICS 623); in-home caregivers in a private household under NOC 31301, 32101, 44100 or 44101 (in Quebec, where the care is for a person with medical needs, with a physician's note); positions that support a permanent residence application only; and genuinely short-duration positions of 120 days or less, with a written exemption request.
Cap on low-wage workers
Low-wage temporary foreign workers may make up at most 10% of the workforce at a work location. The cap is 20% for construction, food manufacturing, hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, and the in-home caregiver occupations above. Employers with fewer than 10 employees may hire at most 1 worker under the 10% cap or 2 under the 20% cap. Positions over the cap may not be processed. Exemptions include on-farm primary agriculture, certain health care caregiving positions, positions supporting permanent residence only, short-duration positions of 120 days or less and low-wage seasonal positions of up to 270 days (once per year per location).
Other low-wage conditions
Maximum employment duration of 1 year per LMIA; full-time work of at least 30 hours per week; the employer pays round-trip transportation, ensures suitable and affordable housing (under 30% of the worker's before-tax income), and provides private health insurance until provincial coverage starts, none of which may be recovered from the worker; recruitment on Job Bank plus at least two other methods for at least 8 consecutive weeks; and the $1,000 processing fee per position, which is not refundable and cannot be charged to the worker. Live-in requirements for in-home caregivers are refused unless an exception applies.
Not the same as Express Entry's high-wage occupations
Limits of this estimate
What to check next
- Read the LMIA work permit guide for the employer's application and the worker's work permit steps.
- If the occupation may be LMIA-exempt, see LMIA-exempt work permits.
- For the fees on the worker's side, use the government fee calculator.
Official sources
- ESDC: Hire a temporary foreign worker in a high-wage or low-wage position (hourly wage thresholds by province or territory; modified October 7, 2026)
- ESDC: Low-wage stream program requirements (cap, fee, housing, transportation, recruitment; modified September 22, 2026)
- ESDC: Refusal to process an LMIA (6% unemployment rule, exceptions, census metropolitan area list; updated October 9, 2026)
- ESDC: Hire a temporary foreign worker in a low-wage position (1-year maximum duration; modified October 7, 2026)
- ESDC: Hire a temporary foreign worker in a high-wage position