Employment Ontario – $6,000 Hiring Grant
A1 Printhouse, a small offset printer in North York with ten employees needed to fill two full time packaging positions. They contacted their local Employment Ontario office and were introduced to the wage subsidy programs. A1 Printhouse learned wage subsidies programs are available to companies to offset the costs of training new employees. To qualify a company must:
- Have been in business for one year
- Have WSIB
- Have third-party liability insurance
The Employment Ontario Wage Subsidy program:
Provides up to $6,000 per new employee hired
Wage subsidy amount per new employee vary depending on the amount of training required by the new employee
The new employee must:
- Have a valid SIN
- Be placed on the company payroll
- A1 Printhouse learned that Employment Ontario would provide them with candidate resumes or they could find their own candidates. Since they had resumes on hand, they decided to interview their own candidates. Before hiring, they informed each new employee that they would need to register with the Employment Ontario office as part of their employment. The new employees visited the Employment Ontario office and registered for the program.
A1 Printhouse then received a wage subsidy agreement from Employment Ontario which they needed to sign and return to Employment Ontario. The agreement outlined the terms and conditions of the wage subsidy.
A1 Printhouse received wage subsidies of $3,920 ($7.00/hour for 480 hours) for packaging employee #1 and $2,400 ( $5.00/hour for 480 hours ) for packaging employee #2. The wage subsidy received for each new employee was based on how much training each packager required. Packager #1 was 18 years old, and had very little work experience and was given a wage subsidy of $3,920. Packager #2 was 35 years old with some warehouse experience, and received a lower wage subsidy than packager #1 of $2,400.
Packager #1 quit after one month of employment. A1 Printhouse contacted their Employment Ontario representative to let her know and received a wage subsidy payment of $1,120 ($7.00/hour for 160 hours worked) for the one month worked.
The Employment Ontario representative informed A1 Printhouse they could hire another packager through the Wage Subsidy program. A1 Printhouse decided to hire another packager and this time they provided their Employment Ontario representative with a job description and asked for candidate resumes. A1 Printhouse went through the resumes and selected candidates to interview. The decided on a 25 year old who was new to Canada and received a wage subsidy of $3,640 ( $7.00/hour for 520 hours ).
As a result of A1 Printhouse’s positive experience with Employment Ontario’s Wage Subsidy program they have contacted Employment Ontario for other positions they were looking to fill including a receptionist and entry level sales representative.
IRAP’s $30,000 Youth Employment Program
A1 Printhouse was looking to hire a recent college graduate with a diploma in graphic arts. A1 Printhouse learned about the Industrial Research Assistance Program’s (IRAP’s) Youth Employment Program which subsidizes wages of recent post-secondary graduates in the graduate’s field of study. A1 Printhouse contacted IRAP at 1-877-994-4727 and was put in touch with an IRAP Technical Representative (TR). The IRAP TR came out to meet with A1 Printhouse to see their operation, learn about the employment position they were looking to fill, and the employment requirements. The IRAP TR reviewed the resume and concluded that the graduate was a good fit for IRAP’s Youth Employment Program, as it provided valuable on the job work experience to the graduate in their field of study. A1 Printhouse was allotted a wage subsidy of $22,500 (50% of the employee’s salary for the year), to offset the cost of training the new employee.
A1 Printhouse learned to effectively use wage subsidy programs and continue to do so. As a result they have been able to save tens of thousands of dollars per year that can be used in other areas.
For more information see:
Search “Employment Ontario (city name)”
ww.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/irap/services/youth_initiatives.html
Contact bonny@akrconsulting.com