CPP and EI contributions

The 2026 numbers

CPP base: 5.95% each from employer and employee on earnings between $3,500 and the year's maximum pensionable earnings of $74,600, a maximum of $4,230.45 each. CPP2, the enhancement's second tier, adds 4% each on earnings between $74,600 and $85,000, up to $416 each. Quebec substitutes QPP at 6.3% each in 2026 (down from 6.4%) on the same ceilings. EI: employees pay $1.63 per $100 of insurable earnings to a maximum of $1,123.07 ($1.30 in Quebec, which runs its own parental insurance plan), and employers pay 1.4 times the employee premium, a maximum of $1,572.30. All ceilings index annually each January.

What the employer side really adds

For a 2026 salary at or above the ceilings, the employer's CPP-plus-EI load tops out around $6,200 outside Quebec, before workers' compensation premiums and any provincial payroll taxes (Ontario's Employer Health Tax, Quebec's payroll levies) that stack on top. It is a materially lighter statutory load than Singapore's CPF or Australia's superannuation, but unlike those, it co-exists with the expectation of employer benefits plans, so the true-cost comparison across countries needs the whole package, not the statutory line alone.

The January ritual

Every ceiling and rate in this term changes each 1 January, and contributions restart from zero: the first pay cheques of the year carry full deductions until each employee hits the annual maximums, then take-home pay rises mid-year. Payroll calendars, net-pay explanations to employees and cost forecasts all inherit that rhythm, and cross-country budget templates that assume Australia's July cycle or the UK's April cycle mis-time Canada by half a year.