In Canada, you do not pay for maternity or parental leave out of payroll. A federal insurance program does, funded by premiums you already pay on every employee. Your job as the employer is to hold the position open, issue the right paperwork, and decide whether to top up the government payment. In Quebec, a separate provincial program replaces the federal one, with different weeks and different pay rates. This guide walks through both, employer duty by employer duty.
Canada does not have one national leave law. Employment Insurance (EI) sets the wage-replacement rules for every province except Quebec, which runs its own Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP). Job protection is set separately again, by each province or, for federally regulated employers, by the Canada Labour Code. That is three layers. An employer hiring in Canada has to get all three right.
The good news: none of the base wage replacement comes out of your budget directly. The real employer costs are the ongoing EI or QPIP premiums you already pay, any top-up you offer, and keeping benefits running during the leave. On top of that sits the admin load of doing it correctly in every province you hire in.
Last updated July 31, 2026. Jump to: At a glance · The federal EI structure · What you must actually do · Topping up EI · Quebec is different · Job protection · What an EOR handles · FAQ
At a glance: federal EI vs. Quebec QPIP
Every employee outside Quebec falls under federal EI. Every employee in Quebec falls under QPIP instead. The two programs pay for the same events — pregnancy, birth, adoption — but at different rates, for different lengths, with no waiting week under QPIP.
| Federal EI (all provinces except Quebec) | Quebec QPIP | |
|---|---|---|
| Maternity | 15 weeks, paid at 55% of average earnings, capped at $729/week (2026) | Basic plan: 18 weeks at 70%. Special plan: 15 weeks at 75% |
| Paternity | No separate benefit — folded into parental leave | Basic plan: 5 weeks at 70%. Special plan: 3 weeks at 75% |
| Parental (shared) | Standard: 40 weeks at 55%. Extended: 69 weeks at 33%, capped at $437/week | Basic plan: 32 weeks at 70%/55%, plus up to 4 bonus weeks if shared. Special plan: 25 weeks at 75% |
| Waiting period | One unpaid week before payments start | None |
| Who funds it | EI premiums (employer pays 1.4x the employee rate) | QPIP premiums — a separate line from EI, employer rate 0.602% (2026) |
| Job protection | Set by each province, or the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers | Set by Quebec's own labour standards act |
That table is the whole shape of the system. Everything below explains what each row means for you.
The federal EI structure, and what it means for you
Outside Quebec, maternity and parental pay both run through Employment Insurance, the same federal program that pays regular unemployment benefits. Your employee applies to Service Canada directly. You do not calculate or send their weekly payment — Service Canada does, from the EI fund.
Maternity benefits
A birth parent can claim up to 15 weeks of EI maternity benefits, paid at 55% of their average insurable weekly earnings. In 2026, that payment is capped at $729 a week, because the maximum insurable earnings figure is $68,900 for the year (checked against canada.ca, July 2026). A one-week unpaid waiting period applies before payments begin, similar to a deductible.
Parental benefits
Either parent can then claim parental benefits, and the two parents can split the weeks between them. There are two options, and the employee picks one when they apply. Standard parental benefits pay 55% of earnings for up to 40 shared weeks, with one parent capped at 35 of them. Extended parental benefits pay 33% of earnings for up to 69 shared weeks, with one parent capped at 61, at a lower weekly cap of $437. Standard pays more per week over a shorter stretch; extended pays less per week over a longer one. The employee chooses, not you.
Your obligation: the Record of Employment
Your one direct action is issuing a Record of Employment (ROE) when the employee's pay stops or drops for the leave. Service Canada uses it to calculate their benefit. Get it in within five days — a late ROE delays their first payment.
You already fund this system continuously, not per-leave. Every payroll cycle, you remit EI premiums for every employee, at 1.4 times the employee's own rate. That funding is ongoing overhead. It does not spike when someone goes on leave.
What you must actually do, step by step
Strip away the benefit calculations and here is the employer checklist, in order.
- Confirm the leave request in writing. Most provinces require written notice, with a minimum lead time before the leave starts.
- Issue the Record of Employment within five days of pay stopping or dropping, so the EI or QPIP claim is not held up.
- Hold their position. They are entitled to return to the same job, or a comparable one at the same pay, when the leave ends — a legal duty everywhere, covered in full below.
- Decide on a top-up. You are not required to top up the government payment, but many employers do — see the next section.
- Keep agreed benefits running. Several provinces require pension and health-benefit contributions to continue during the leave, if the employee keeps paying their share.
- Plan the return. Confirm the date, reintroduce them to any team changes, and treat the leave as protected time, not a resume gap.
Employers most often assume they owe the wage replacement itself. They do not — EI and QPIP pay it. What you owe is the paperwork, the job, and, if you choose, a top-up.
Topping up EI: how the SUB plan works
EI maternity and parental benefits alone rarely match a full salary — the standard rate is 55%, dropping to 33% on extended parental. Many employers close that gap with a top-up, run through what Canada calls a Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) plan.
A SUB plan is simply your commitment to pay the difference between EI and some higher percentage of the employee's normal salary — commonly 75% to 100% — for some or all of the leave. Two rules make this worth doing correctly rather than informally:
- No registration needed, specifically for this case. Employers topping up maternity, parental, compassionate care, or family caregiver benefits do not have to register the plan with Service Canada — a specific exemption. (SUB plans covering other reasons, like training or illness, do require registration.)
- Do not exceed normal weekly earnings. As long as the EI payment plus your top-up together do not exceed the employee's normal weekly earnings, the top-up is not deducted from their EI. Go over that line and Service Canada treats the excess as earnings, which reduces their EI payment.
A top-up is still subject to standard payroll deductions. CPP contributions and income tax apply to it, even though it rides alongside an EI payment taxed differently. Put the terms in writing — percentage, duration, and which weeks it covers — so both sides know what is promised.
A top-up is a competitive choice everywhere in Canada, not a legal requirement. Some employers offer it only for maternity leave; some extend it through parental leave too. Decide based on what you can sustain long-term, not just for the first leave you pay.
Quebec runs its own system entirely
If you have any employee working in Quebec, federal EI maternity and parental rules do not apply to them. Quebec opted out of that part of EI and runs the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) instead, administered separately from Service Canada.
The practical differences that matter to you as an employer:
- A separate premium, a separate remittance. QPIP replaces the maternity/parental share of standard EI. The 2026 employer QPIP premium rate is 0.602%, on insurable earnings up to $103,000. It goes to Revenu Québec, not the CRA's federal EI stream.
- Higher pay, shorter general length. QPIP pays more of the employee's salary than federal EI does. Under the Basic Plan, maternity leave pays 70% of earnings for 18 weeks. Under the Special Plan, it pays 75% for 15 weeks. Paternity leave is also a genuine separate entitlement in Quebec — 5 weeks at 70% (Basic) or 3 weeks at 75% (Special) — not folded into parental leave the way it is federally.
- No waiting week. QPIP payments start from the first week, unlike the one unpaid week under federal EI.
- Parental weeks are shareable, with a bonus for splitting them. The Basic Plan's 32 shared parental weeks (7 at 70%, 25 at 55%) grow by 4 more weeks at 55% if each parent takes at least 8 of them — a deliberate incentive to split the leave between both parents.
You cannot run one national leave process across Canada. An employee in Ontario and one in Quebec, doing the same job, sit under separate premium schedules and paperwork — the ROE-to-Service-Canada path for one, a QPIP claim through Revenu Québec for the other.
Job protection: the part that is on you, not the government
EI and QPIP handle the money. Job protection is a separate legal duty that sits with you as the employer, set by employment standards law in each province — or, for federally regulated employers such as banks and airlines, by the Canada Labour Code.
Across the country, job-protected maternity leave generally runs 16 to 19 weeks. Combined parental leave runs 37 to 71 weeks. The exact figure changes by province, so check the specific one before you set a return date. As examples: Ontario and British Columbia both protect 17 weeks of pregnancy leave; Alberta protects 16.
Federally regulated employers, such as banks and airlines, work from the Canada Labour Code instead. It protects parental leave up to 63 weeks. Amendments that took effect in December 2025 added a new unpaid adoption and surrogacy leave of up to 16 weeks, with further changes expected through 2026.
Whatever the exact number where you hire, three duties are consistent everywhere in Canada:
- You cannot terminate, lay off, or discipline an employee because they took or requested this leave. Doing so is unlawful in every province.
- You must reinstate them to the same job, or a comparable one at the same pay and seniority, when the leave ends.
- In several provinces, you must keep contributing to benefit plans — health, dental, pension — during the leave, if the employee keeps paying their share. This applies whether or not you also offer a salary top-up.
Get this wrong and the exposure is real: wrongful dismissal claims, reinstatement orders, and back pay. Employers hiring across several provinces trip on this most, simply because the number of weeks is not the same everywhere.
What an employer of record handles for you
Every piece above has its own deadline and its own jurisdiction: the ROE, the EI or QPIP remittance, the province-specific job-protection period, an optional top-up under SUB rules, and ongoing benefit continuation. Multiply that by every province you hire in, and it becomes an operating system, not a one-off.
Remote& acts as the legal employer for your team in Canada, Quebec included. We issue the ROE, remit the correct EI or QPIP premiums by province, apply the right job-protection period, and administer any top-up you offer — all under one contract. You keep directing the work; we carry the paperwork.
See how this fits your team on our global workforce management page, or run the numbers on our Canada employment cost calculator. Read our Canada employment guide for the wider picture, our paternity leave in Canada guide for that entitlement alone, or maternity and parental leave by country for how Canada compares globally.
Frequently asked questions
What is Canada's maternity and parental leave for employers?
Outside Quebec, EI pays up to 15 weeks of maternity benefits at 55% of earnings, then shared parental benefits of either 40 weeks at 55% or 69 weeks at 33%. Quebec's QPIP pays higher rates with no waiting week. Job protection is separate, set by the province or the Canada Labour Code. Your job is to issue the paperwork, hold the position, and decide on a top-up — not to fund the wage replacement itself.
Do employers have to pay for maternity leave in Canada?
No. The base wage replacement is paid by Employment Insurance, or by QPIP in Quebec, not by the employer directly. You already fund the system through ongoing payroll premiums on every employee, whether or not anyone is on leave that year. Your direct actions are issuing the Record of Employment, holding the job open, and choosing whether to add a voluntary top-up.
What is the difference between EI maternity leave and parental leave?
Maternity benefits are for the birth parent only, capped at 15 weeks at 55% of earnings. Parental benefits follow and can be split between both parents — standard (40 shared weeks at 55%) or extended (69 shared weeks at 33%, at a lower cap). Paternity is not a separate federal EI category outside Quebec; the second parent draws from the same shared parental weeks.
Is Quebec's parental leave different from the rest of Canada?
Yes, entirely. Quebec opted out of federal EI and runs its own Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), funded by a separate premium and administered by Revenu Québec. QPIP pays a higher percentage of earnings, has no waiting week, and gives paternity leave as a genuine standalone entitlement — not folded into parental leave. If you employ anyone in Quebec, plan for a second, distinct process.
Do employers have to top up EI or QPIP maternity pay?
No, a top-up is optional everywhere in Canada. Many employers offer one anyway, commonly bringing total pay to 75-100% of salary, through a Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) plan. Employers topping up maternity or parental benefits do not need to register the plan with Service Canada. The rule to follow: EI or QPIP plus the top-up together must not exceed the employee's normal weekly earnings, or the excess reduces the government benefit.
Can an employer terminate an employee during maternity or parental leave in Canada?
No. Every province, and the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers, prohibits terminating, laying off, or disciplining an employee for taking or requesting a protected leave. The employee is entitled to return to the same job, or a comparable one at the same pay and seniority, once the leave ends. Getting this wrong exposes the employer to wrongful dismissal claims and reinstatement orders.
What happens to employee benefits during maternity leave in Canada?
In several provinces, the employer must keep contributing to benefit plans — health, dental, pension — throughout the protected leave, as long as the employee keeps paying their own share. This applies whether or not the employer also offers a salary top-up, and the exact rule varies by province, so check where each employee is based.
How long is job-protected leave in Canada?
It varies by province. Job-protected maternity leave generally runs 16 to 19 weeks, and combined parental leave runs 37 to 71 weeks, depending on where the employee works. Ontario and British Columbia protect 17 weeks of pregnancy leave, for example, while Alberta protects 16. Federally regulated employers follow the Canada Labour Code, which protects parental leave up to 63 weeks and, since December 2025, adds a separate adoption and surrogacy leave of up to 16 weeks.
Hire in Canada without carrying the paperwork
Remote& acts as the legal employer for your Canadian team, Quebec included. We issue the Record of Employment, remit the right EI or QPIP premiums, apply the correct job-protection period, and administer any top-up you choose to offer. One flat $400 per employee per month, no matter the province.