Employer Terms and Job Posting Policy

Last updated 28 September 2026

These terms add to the Spark Jobs Terms of Service and apply to anyone who posts a job, internship, co-op, or local gig on Spark Jobs ("Employer" or "you"). Spark Jobs Platform Inc. ("Spark", "we").

1. Who can post

• You must be a real business, school, non-profit, public body, or an individual adult (18+) hiring for a genuine, lawful job or gig.
• You must give accurate information about who you are, and we may ask you to verify it (for example, a business email, website, or business number).
• One person or business per account. Don't post on behalf of someone else without their permission.

2. Never charge job seekers

You may not ask candidates to pay anything to apply, interview, train, get "certified", buy equipment or a starter kit, or be hired. Spark is free for job seekers, and any posting that asks candidates for money will be removed.

3. Jobs that are not allowed

• Anything illegal, or work that breaks Ontario's employment, health and safety, or human rights laws.
• Pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing (MLM), "be your own boss" recruiting where income depends on recruiting others, and "commission-only" roles presented as regular paid jobs. Commission roles must say so clearly, and employees paid by commission must still earn at least minimum wage for every hour worked.
• Unpaid work presented as a paid job, or "trial shifts" that aren't paid.
• Adult content, escorting, or jobs involving weapons, drugs, gambling, or cannabis for users under the legal age.
• Money-transfer, "package reshipping", cheque-cashing, crypto, or "payment processing" jobs (these are common scams).
• Jobs that require sharing a Social Insurance Number (SIN), banking details, or ID before a real job offer.
• Fake, placeholder, or "evergreen" postings for jobs that don't exist.

4. Young workers

Many Spark users are students, and some are 14 to 17. If you hire young people:

• Follow Ontario's minimum age rules: at least 14 for offices, stores, arenas and restaurant serving areas; at least 15 for factories, warehouses, repair shops, restaurant kitchens, automotive service garages, laundries, and produce or meat preparation or shipping and receiving in grocery stores; at least 16 for construction, logging and surface mining (away from the working face); and at least 18 for window cleaning and underground mining. See ontario.ca/page/minimum-age-work.
• Don't employ anyone under 16 during school hours, except where the law allows it.
• Pay at least minimum wage. From October 1, 2026, Ontario's general minimum wage is $17.95 per hour. The student minimum wage of $16.90 per hour applies only to students under 18 who work 28 hours a week or less while school is in session, or who work during a school break or summer holidays.
• Never ask a minor to do unsafe work.
• Some local gigs have a minimum age in the app. Don't try to get around it.

5. Honest, complete postings

Every posting must include:

• the real employer name (or a clear description if confidential);
• the job title, location (or "remote") and type (part-time, full-time, co-op, internship, contract, gig);
• the pay, or a pay range no wider than $50,000 a year, and how it's paid (hourly, salary, per gig, commission);
• whether you use artificial intelligence to screen, assess or select applicants;
• whether the posting is for an existing, open vacancy.

Postings may not require "Canadian experience". Ontario's Employment Standards Act requires this of employers with 25 or more employees, and Spark applies it to all employers.

6. No discrimination

You must follow the Ontario Human Rights Code and any other human rights law that applies. You may not refuse to consider, or treat differently, any candidate because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed (religion), sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences (where the Code protects it), marital status, family status, or disability, except where the law specifically allows it.

7. How you may use applicant information

• Applicant information (profile, resume, messages) may only be used to consider that person for your jobs.
• Don't sell it, share it with others, add people to marketing lists, or contact them about unrelated things.
• Keep it secure and delete it when you no longer need it for hiring or legal record-keeping.
• Downloads and exports. For people who applied to your jobs on Spark, you can download their résumé as a PDF and export your applicant list as a CSV spreadsheet (name, the post they applied to, status, application date, school and program, skills, availability, approximate distance, your own ratings, notes, interview times and rejection reasons, and whether a résumé is attached). Downloaded files leave Spark and become your responsibility: the rules in this section apply to them in full. Only share them with people at your organization who are involved in that hiring decision, store them securely, and delete them when you no longer need them. Deleting a Spark account does not reach copies you have already downloaded, so you must delete those yourself when a candidate asks or when you no longer need them.
• Company shared pipeline (opt-in). If your company is a Spark company partner, each employer account on the company team can choose to share its applicant pipeline with colleagues on the same team. Nobody is shared automatically: sharing starts only when you tap "Join and share my applicants", and your applicants are shown only to colleagues who have also joined. Colleagues who have joined can see and update the applicants of everyone who has joined (status, notes, ratings, interviews). You can stop sharing at any time ("Stop sharing" on your dashboard), and being removed from the company's team stops it too. You are responsible for making sure everyone you share with follows these terms.
• If you're an Ontario employer with 25 or more employees, you're responsible for your own Employment Standards Act duties, including telling interviewed candidates within 45 days whether a hiring decision has been made and keeping copies of your postings for 3 years.

8. Respectful communication

Keep messages professional. No harassment, pressure tactics, requests for photos, or requests to move to personal chat apps before an interview.

9. Reporting, removal and bans

• Anyone can report a posting or an employer in the app ("Report this job") or by emailing support@sparkjobs.ca. See our Fraudulent Job Posting Policy.
• We may edit, hide or remove any posting, and suspend or permanently ban any account, at any time, if we believe it breaks these terms or the law, or puts users at risk. We may do this without notice where safety requires it.
• Paid features don't give you the right to break these terms, and we may not refund them if your account is removed for a violation (unless the law requires a refund).
• We may report suspected fraud to the police or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

10. Contact

Spark Jobs Platform Inc. · Ontario, Canada · support@sparkjobs.ca