Happy Hump Day {{first_name | Toaster}} 🐪 ,

Job searching has felt like a black box for a long time.

You apply without knowing the pay. You interview without knowing where you stand. You refresh your inbox, replay conversations in your head, and eventually realize the role disappeared without a word. Salary secrecy and candidate ghosting became normalized, even though they ask candidates to give time, emotional energy, and unpaid prep work with very little in return.

Ontario just stepped in and said enough. As of January 1, the province enforced pay transparency and quietly cracked down on candidate ghosting too. This means more clarity, fewer guessing games, and a baseline level of respect baked into the hiring process.

Under new provincial legislation, employers with 25 or more employees are now required to include a salary or hourly wage range on publicly posted roles. “Competitive compensation” placeholders are out this year. So is asking candidates to commit to a process without knowing whether a role can realistically support their life.

Here’s what’s now required in Ontario
• Salary or wage ranges must be listed on job postings
• Ranges can’t exceed a $50,000 spread
• Employers can no longer require “Canadian experience”
• Any use of AI in hiring must be disclosed

Candidates have been asking for this for years. Research consistently shows that job postings with salary ranges attract more qualified applicants. The law is simply catching up to reality.

The same goes for ghosting. Under the new rules, employers are required to follow up with candidates they’ve interviewed within 45 days. No more disappearing acts. No more wondering if a role was filled, paused, or quietly abandoned.

Ghosting doesn’t just feel bad, it erodes trust, damages employer brand, and disproportionately impacts women and underrepresented candidates who already carry more uncertainty through hiring processes. If someone invests their time in your process, they deserve closure.

We expect other provinces to follow Ontario’s lead, especially as conversations around pay equity, AI in hiring, and candidate experience keep gaining traction. South of the border, several U.S. states including California, New York, Colorado, and Washington already require salary ranges on job postings, with more jurisdictions moving in the same direction. Transparency is quickly becoming the default, not the exception.

Jobs on the Toast job board always include a salary range. Through the newly updated portal applicants can use the candidate dashboard feature to track the status of their applications. No guessing, inbox refreshing, or awkward follow ups. Just clear signals about where things stand and what’s next.

Women in tech can use the candidate dashboard in the Toast Portal for free by signing up here. It’s designed to make job searching feel less opaque and more human. This is what modern hiring looks like, and we’re glad the system is finally starting to reflect that.

Team Toast 🥂

The new Toast Portal is live 🥂

Up until now, it was a member-only portal - but starting today, we’ve also added something new: candidates who apply to roles on our job board can now log in for free.

That means the Portal is no longer just where members access community + programming, it’s now also a centralized place for women in tech to get real job search support in one platform, with membership as an optional upgrade.

We’re excited to announce our support for CIX Summit, powered by Elevate. 🥂

CIX Summit is Canada’s largest startup awards program and investment summit bringing together Canadian tech founders, global investors, and industry advisors to showcase our most promising companies and power new investment deals. The event will be held on March 25, 2026 at Design Exchange in Toronto.

CIX is offering our community an exclusive promo code to save on all tickets.

Use CIXTOAST20 for 20% off - Spots are limited!

✅ To grab your tickets visit the link below