Older injured workers in Ontario face age discrimination and financial hardship under the province’s workers’ compensation system. Changes to the province’s workers’ compensation law in 1990 brought in a wage loss system with benefits lasting until age 65, the mandatory retirement age at the time. Although mandatory retirement was abolished in 2005, age caps on benefits and rights are still written into the current legislation:
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) s.43(1) allows the loss-of earnings (LOE) benefit to be cut at age 65 or two years after the injury if the injury occurs after age 63.
- WSIA s. 41(7) removes the employer’s obligation to re-employ workers reaching age 65, a further injustice especially for those temporarily injured.
Age limits on benefits mean older workers, particularly those injured later in life, face a strict and early cut-off from income support, lack of access to crucial supports, regardless of their actual ability or intention to retire. It is an arbitrary cut-off that disproportionately impacts low-income and racialized older workers.
The reality of today’s longer working lives
Outdated laws reflect antiquated thinking on age and work. From necessity or choice, the percentage of older workers participating in the Ontario labour force has significantly increased with 30% of those age 65-69 employed, 8% of those 70 and older. Between 2000 and 2024 WSIB data for claims of those 63 and above increased from 1.0% of all claims to 5.8 %, a 480% increase.
Taking action for older injured workers’ rights
In addition to putting older injured workers at risk of poverty and devaluing their dignity, age-based discrimination in the WSIA also violates the right to equality before the law under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ( s. 15(1) ).
The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) has launched a new campaign in July 2025 to have the benefit cut-off at age 65 removed from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.
This action for law and policy reform continues the long struggle by legal clinics and the injured worker community for older workers’ right to just compensation – a history that includes addressing cuts to WCB pension supplements, WSIB clawbacks to old age security increases, workers’ compensation retirement benefits policy …
- Mercer, Shane. 2025 Jul. 17. “Call to end to ‘age-based discrimination’ in Ontario.” Canadian Occupational Safety
- Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic. 2025 Jun. 19. Fact Sheet: Age Discrimination and the WSIB. Toronto: IWC
- Durrani, Tebasum & Chris Grawey. 2024 Jun. 24. “We’re staying the workforce longer, but this law isn’t keeping up with the times.” Hamilton Spectator
- McKinnon, John. 2020 Oct. 5. What Happens to Your Benefits when Injured Workers turn 65 (listen to IWC presentation to Thunder Bay & District Injured Workers session)