The Ontario Workforce Priority stream awards up to 10 points for your Canadian earnings history, based on a Notice of Assessment from the last 5 years, and up to 15 points for the hourly wage in your job offer. Together that is 25 of your total score tied to what you earn. Ontario published the current grid on its Workforce Priority stream page, last updated October 6, 2026.
How many points does Canadian earnings history give?
Ontario scores your annual earnings, not your hourly rate, from a Notice of Assessment issued in the last 5 years. The thresholds are exact.
- $80,000 or more: 10 points
- $70,000 to $79,999: 8 points
- $50,000 to $69,999: 6 points
- $30,000 to $49,999: 4 points
- Under $30,000: 0 points
Notice the shape of this. The gap between $49,999 and $50,000 is worth 2 points. One dollar of reported income can move your score.
How is the hourly wage scored?
The wage band is worth more than the earnings band. It is prefilled from your job offer and does not apply to self employed physicians.
- $40.00 or more: 15 points
- $35.00 to $39.99: 12 points
- $30.00 to $34.99: 10 points
- $25.00 to $29.99: 8 points
- $20.00 to $24.99: 5 points
- Under $20.00: 0 points
A raise from $34.00 to $35.00 an hour is worth 2 points. A move from $39.99 to $40.00 is worth 3. These are the cheapest points in the grid to influence before you submit.
Why do two factors measure pay?
They measure different things. The wage band looks forward at the job you are being offered. The earnings history looks backward at income you have already reported to the Canada Revenue Agency.
A newcomer on a first Canadian job offer can score well on wage and zero on earnings history. Someone with four years of Ontario employment can score on both.
That is the practical effect of the design. Candidates already working in Ontario at a good salary are rewarded twice.
What else carries heavy weight in the Ontario grid?
Pay is not the biggest block. Three other factors move scores just as much.
Ontario work experience in the offered position pays up to 18 points at over 24 months. Regionalization pays up to 15 points for a job in Northern Ontario, 10 for Eastern, Southwestern, or Central Ontario outside the Greater Toronto Area, 5 inside the GTA outside Toronto, and 0 for Toronto itself.
Language pays up to 15 points at CLB 9 or higher, scored on your lowest ability across the four skills. A second official language at CLB 6 in both adds 10.
Read that Toronto line again. A Toronto job offer scores zero on regionalization. The same offer in Thunder Bay scores 15.
Where do most candidates lose points?
Language, because Ontario uses your lowest of the four abilities. One weak writing score pulls the whole factor down.
Legal status is the other quiet one. A valid work permit is 10 points and a valid study permit is 5. Holding neither is 0.
You can model all of this before you submit with our OINP points calculator.
Does this replace the old OINP streams?
Yes. Ontario’s program page states that the Workforce Priority stream has launched and that all other OINP streams are closed. Ontario also says more changes are coming.
If you were building a file for a stream that has since closed, your scoring assumptions are out of date. Our explainer on the Ontario Workforce Priority stream and the 2026 OINP changes covers what moved and what closed.
Self employed physicians are handled differently. Wage points do not apply, and their Ontario experience is counted as cumulative medical practice. See our post on Ontario physicians applying without a job offer.
For the nomination volume behind all of this, see Ontario’s confirmed 2026 nomination allocation.
What should I do before I submit?
Pull your last 5 years of Notices of Assessment and find the highest single year. That number sets your earnings points, so check it rather than guessing.
Then confirm the exact hourly wage on your job offer, in writing, against the band thresholds above. A wage a few cents under a band is worth fixing with your employer before you submit, not after.
Full stream requirements are on our Ontario PNP guide.
Amir Ismail is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, RCIC #R412319. If your score sits near a cut-off, or your job offer wording puts your wage points at risk, Book Your Strategy Assessment and we will review the file before it goes in.
Source: Government of Ontario, Ontario Workforce Priority stream, scoring grid as published and last updated October 6, 2026; Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program page, last updated July 14, 2026.
