With apologies to Harper’s Index
Maximum monthly amount an adult couple can receive on Ontario Works (2025): $1,136
Maximum monthly amount that a single person with disabilities can receive from ODSP $1,408
Percentage by which the maximum single ODSP rate exceeds an OW couple’s rate: 24%
Last time earnings exemptions for OW were increased: 2013
Value of the $200 flat rate exemption if indexed to inflation in 2025: $267
Value of $200 as a share of full time minimum wages in 2025: 7.2%
In 2013: 12%
Size of the 2023 ODSP earnings exemption in 2023: $1,000 a month
Percentage of OW recipients reporting earnings in 2002: 18%
In 2024: 8.2 %
Increase in Ontario’s minimum wage between 2002 and 2025: 151%
Increase in consumer prices over the same time period: 64%
Share of full time wages represented by the OW single rate in 1990: 70%
In 2025: 26%
Monthly OW single rate in 2002: $520
In October 2018: $733
In August 2025: $733
Value of the monthly OW single rate if indexed to 2002 prices: $856 a month
If indexed to 1995 prices: $976
If indexed to 1993 prices: $1,277
The single OW breakeven in 2025 (the earnings that would reduce OW to zero): $19,992
Percentage of full time minimum wages that represents: 60%
In 2018: 74%
In 2002: 93.4%
The ODSP breakeven in 2025: 103% of full time minimum wages
Single social assistance for a 60-64 year old woman without disabilities or an ODSP recipient with disabilities in 1994: $930 a month
If raised with price inflation in 2025: $1,789
Current maximum benefit for the 60-64 year old woman : $733 a month.
For a single person with disabilities: $1,408
Percentage by which the single ODSP rate would have exceeded current ODSP plus the federal Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) had ODSP been indexed to consumer prices in 1993: 11.2%
Percent of Ontarians receiving ODSP and OW social assistance in June 2025: 6.1%
In 1935: 15%
In 1942: less than 1%
In March 1994: 13.9%
Post WWII average: about 6%
Last Progressive Conservative Premier to increase OW rates: Bill Davis
Year: 1985
Increase: 6%
Years PC governments have been in place in Ontario since 1985: 15