Fence and deck payroll: a crew you hire in April and lay off in November

Employee or subcontractor: decide per worker, before the first cheque

Paying a worker per foot of fence does not make him a subcontractor. The CRA looks at who controls the work, who owns the tools, whether the worker can profit or lose on the job, and how integrated he is into your business. A helper who rides in your truck, uses your auger, and works only for you is an employee no matter what the invoice says. A two-person crew with its own trailer, its own insurance, and other builders as customers can genuinely be a sub. The CRA's employee-or-contractor tests are the starting point, but the WSIB runs its own independent-operator questionnaire and can reach a different conclusion for premiums.

Getting it wrong is expensive in a specific way: the CRA assesses both halves of CPP and EI going back years, plus penalties, and the WSIB bills premiums on everything you paid the misclassified worker. We document the decision for each worker at the start of the season, so the answer is on file before anyone asks.

WSIB in construction: most fence builders sit right on the line

Since 2013, coverage in Ontario's construction industry has been compulsory for independent operators, sole proprietors, partners, and executive officers, not only for their workers. The one carve-out that matters to this trade is the home renovation exemption: work done exclusively on existing private residences, directly for the occupant, who pays you directly. A backyard deck for a homeowner fits. A run of subdivision fencing paid by a home builder, a commercial enclosure, or a pool fence billed through a pool company does not, and as we read the rules, one such job ends the exemption. Any employees you hire are covered regardless.

Two practical consequences follow. Builders and general contractors will not release payment without a WSIB clearance certificate, so the account has to exist and be current before the first builder job. And your own subcontractors need clearances too, because without one their premiums can land on you. We keep premium remittances on the WSIB's schedule and reconcile reported insurable earnings to payroll, since the annual reconciliation is where under-reporting surfaces.

Long June days: overtime, vacation pay, and the construction holiday rule

Fence and deck crews work the daylight, and in Ontario overtime starts after 44 hours in a work week at time-and-a-half. A crew doing five ten-hour days in June is six hours into overtime every week, whether or not the pay stub says so. A written averaging agreement can smooth hours within the limits the ESA allows, but it has to be signed before the hours are worked, not reconstructed in November.

Vacation pay is 4 percent of wages for the first five years and 6 percent after that. For seasonal crews we normally pay it on every cheque, shown as its own line, so no balance is owing at layoff. Public holidays are where construction is different: as we read the ESA regulations, construction employees are exempt from the public-holiday rules when they receive at least 7.7 percent of their hourly rate as vacation and holiday pay combined. A crew paid a plain 4 percent is not exempt, so Canada Day and Labour Day pay is calculated from the regular wages and vacation pay earned in the four work weeks before the holiday, divided by 20. We set the pay structure deliberately either way.

Season end: ROEs, T4s, T5018s, and remittances that do not stop

When the crew is laid off for winter, each employee has an interruption of earnings and needs a Record of Employment. We file them electronically within five calendar days after the end of the final pay period, with the reason coded as shortage of work and the expected recall date if you have one, because that is what their EI claim runs on. Our ROE guide covers the rest of the mechanics.

Remittances do not end with the season. The final payroll's source deductions are still due on the 15th of the following month, and T4s are due by the end of February. If a crew member was a subcontractor, the payment goes on a T5018 instead, due within six months of your fiscal year-end. The Ontario Employer Health Tax rarely touches a fence crew, since eligible employers are exempt on the first $1 million of payroll, but it is on our checklist when a company adds a second or third crew. We run all of this through Wagepoint or QuickBooks Online Payroll, with the payroll journal synced to your job-costed books so labour lands on the job it built.

If you buy from US suppliers, ship product south, or get asked about a job across the line, see our cross-border page for fence and deck builders. Our payroll services page explains how we run pay for every client, seasonal or not.

Source: Ontario — Your guide to the Employment Standards Act: public holidays.