Parental Leave Canada 2026: EI Weeks, Max Pay and ROE Codes

Keep the ROE code, the benefit application date and the job-protected leave dates together in the employee record so the leave process does not depend on memory.

How Parental Leave Actually Works in Canada

There are three distinct pieces to what most people lump together as "parental leave": the income-replacement benefit (EI, or QPIP in Quebec), the job-protected leave under the employment standard, and the Record of Employment you file. Getting them confused is how employers end up filing incorrect ROEs and getting calls from Service Canada. The table shows the benefit side for 2026.

Sources: Government of Canada, EI maternity and parental benefit amounts and benefit weeks; Gouvernement du Quebec, QPIP basic and special plans. The EI maximums rest on $68,900 in 2026 maximum insurable earnings, from the CRA EI premium table. The $103,000 QPIP figure is the 2026 maximum insurable earnings in QPIP's benefit calculation.

Maximum EI Maternity Benefit in 2026

Maternity benefits through Employment Insurance cover up to 15 weeks for the person giving birth, payable at 55% of the claimant's average insurable weekly earnings, up to a weekly maximum of $729 in 2026. That maximum reflects the $68,900 yearly cap on insurable earnings, so an employee earning $68,900 and one earning $120,000 receive the same maximum weekly amount.

The one-week EI waiting period is waived for new claims that start between March 30, 2025 and October 9, 2027, under the temporary EI measures. A claimant who receives a qualifying SUB-plan top-up may choose to serve it when that is advantageous.

Standard vs Extended Parental Leave: Weeks and Weekly Pay

After maternity benefits (or instead of them, for non-birthing parents), parents choose between two EI options. Standard parental benefits are up to 40 shared weeks at 55% of earnings, up to $729 a week in 2026. Either parent can take up to 35 weeks of it, and the remaining 5 weeks are reserved for the other parent, a "use it or lose it" incentive that the federal government introduced to encourage both parents to take time off. The ROE reason code for parental leave is P.

Extended parental benefits are up to 69 shared weeks, with no parent receiving more than 61. The catch? The benefit rate drops to 33% of insurable earnings, up to $437 a week in 2026. The total dollar amount paid out is roughly equivalent to the standard option, just spread thinner over more weeks.

Parents choose when they apply and cannot switch once benefits are paid. At the 2026 maximums, standard benefits total up to $29,160 (40 weeks at $729) and extended benefits up to $30,153 (69 weeks at $437), shared between both parents. Extended buys 29 more weeks of leave for about $1,000 more in total benefits, with a weekly cheque about 40% smaller. Both totals are ceilings: the actual amount depends on the claimant's insurable earnings.

The Quebec Exception

Quebec doesn't use the federal EI system for parental benefits. Instead, it runs the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), and the differences are significant enough that you can't just treat Quebec employees the same as everyone else.

QPIP is more generous. No waiting period. Higher replacement rates: the basic plan pays 18 weeks of maternity benefits at 70% of earnings, and the special plan pays 15 weeks at 75%. Parental benefits run 32 shared weeks on the basic plan (7 weeks at 70%, then 25 weeks at 55%) or 25 shared weeks at 75% on the special plan. Self-employed workers are covered. QPIP counts earnings up to $103,000 in 2026, and the definitions of who qualifies are different.

To estimate the premium side, use the Quebec QPP and QPIP contribution calculator. It covers the deductions on pay, not the benefit an employee will receive.

For the premium side, Quebec employees pay a reduced EI rate plus a QPIP premium. Rates and remittance are in our Quebec payroll compliance guide and the QPIP glossary entry.

What Employers Are Actually Required to Do

Job Protection

Every province and territory in Canada requires employers to hold the employee's job (or a comparable one) for the duration of their leave. Ontario's pregnancy and parental leave rules are among the most detailed in the country, covering everything from the reinstatement obligation to benefit continuation. You cannot terminate, demote, or restructure someone out of their position because they took parental leave.

Eliminating a role during leave requires careful analysis of reinstatement and anti-reprisal protections. A genuine business change does not remove the obligation to assess the employee's statutory and human rights protections.

Benefits Continuation

Check benefit continuation under the governing employment standard and plan. In Ontario, employees on pregnancy or parental leave can continue participating in specified pension, life, accidental death, extended health and dental plans unless they elect not to. Employer contributions continue where the employee pays any required share.

If you're not tracking this, you'll end up with benefit coverage gaps, back-premiums owed, or worse, a denied claim during leave because nobody noticed the payments stopped.

The ROE Filing

For electronic weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly payrolls, file the ROE within five calendar days after the pay period in which the interruption occurs. For monthly or 13-pay-period payrolls, file by the earlier of that date or 15 calendar days after the interruption begins. Paper ROEs have different timing rules. Use code F for maternity and code P for parental or adoption leave. Service Canada's ROE guide sets out the applicable deadline and edge cases. For the full code list, deadlines and the late-ROE penalty, see our Record of Employment guide.

The pattern we hear most on discovery calls starts with an employee going on maternity leave. Nobody issues the ROE for three weeks. The employee can apply for EI without waiting for it, but Service Canada still needs the ROE to process the claim. See the HR compliance checklist for the full pattern.

Employer Top-Up Plans (SUB Plans): The Competitive Advantage Nobody Talks About

EI maternity and parental benefits max out at $729 per week (standard, 55%) or $437 per week (extended, 33%) in 2026. For an employee earning $80,000, that's a pay cut of roughly 53% on the standard plan and 72% on the extended plan.

How a SUB Plan Works

A supplemental unemployment benefit (SUB) plan is the formal name for an employer top-up on EI maternity or parental benefits. Service Canada does not deduct the top-up from EI when the EI benefit plus the employer payment stays at or below the employee's normal weekly earnings, and the payment does not reduce other accumulated employment benefits. Employers are not required to register these plans with Service Canada, but they must keep records showing the plan's effective date and that it meets those conditions. For tax and CPP treatment of the payment, see the CRA's SUBP guidance. The rules are on Service Canada's page on supplementing maternity and parental benefits.

The Real Cost of a Top-Up

A parental leave top-up is when the employer pays the difference (or a portion of it) between what EI provides and the employee's regular salary. There is no universal statutory top-up requirement. An employment contract, collective agreement or binding employer policy can create an obligation. But in a tight labour market, it's one of the most effective retention tools available, and it costs less than you think.

Illustrative calculation: a 17-week top-up to 80% of a $70,000 annual salary, assuming the employee receives the stated maximum EI benefit throughout. Weekly amounts below are rounded for display:

• Employee's weekly salary: $1,346
• EI weekly benefit (55%): $729 (max)
• 80% target: $1,077
• Weekly top-up: $348
• Total 17-week cost before rounding weekly inputs: approximately $5,915

Roughly six thousand dollars. Gallup puts the cost of replacing an employee at 50% to 200% of annual salary (sourced in our HR software ROI guide), which is $35,000 to $140,000 for a $70,000 role.

The Return-to-Work Problem

An employee goes on leave for 12 months. Maybe 18. They come back to a team that's moved on, a manager who may have changed, and systems that have been updated. Their benefits need to be reactivated. Their payroll needs to be restarted at the correct rate. Seniority needs to be maintained. Vacation accrual needs to account for the leave period correctly.

One detail that catches employers off guard, and how Workzoom handles it: time-off balances are calculated, not stored as a static number. The balance is Carry Over plus Earned plus Adjustments minus Taken. That balance updates after the pay run is processed and closed, not the instant a leave request is approved. If your return-to-work process restarts payroll mid-cycle without accounting for that, the balance will be wrong.

In Ontario, an employee returning from pregnancy or parental leave is in most cases entitled to the same job, or a comparable job if the old job no longer exists, and keeps earning credit toward length of service and seniority during the leave, per Ontario's guide. Other jurisdictions set their own rules.

Who Owns the Return-to-Work Process?

An effective-dated employment record that tracks leave start and end dates makes the return-to-work trigger automatic rather than someone's Monday morning inbox problem.

If your HR system doesn't have a structured return-to-work process, what happens is someone in payroll gets an email that says "Sarah's back on Monday" and has to scramble.

Is Maternity Pay Different in Ontario and Other Provinces?

No. EI is federal, so the 55% rate and the $729 weekly maximum are the same in every province except Quebec, where QPIP replaces EI for maternity, paternity and parental benefits. What changes by province is job-protected leave. Ontario's Employment Standards Act, in short: Ontario: 13-week qualifying employment for either leave; 17 weeks pregnancy leave (may be longer); parental leave 61 weeks (after pregnancy leave) or 63 weeks (otherwise). Those are job-protected weeks, not benefit weeks or pay.

EI maternity and parental benefits and Quebec QPIP provide income replacement. Provincial, territorial or federal labour standards separately determine protected leave. The examples below are not a complete national eligibility table.

• B.C.: BC: 17 weeks maternity leave; parental leave 61 weeks (after maternity leave) or 62 weeks (otherwise, or adopting)
• Alberta: The Employment Standards Code sets job-protected maternity and parental leave and the length of employment an employee needs to qualify. Confirm the current weeks and qualifying period there before advising an employee.

What Happens When the ROE or the Leave Is Mishandled

Failing to issue an ROE is an offence under the general EI Act penalty: $100 to $2,000 or up to six months in jail, or both. A wrong code delays the employee's EI claim. Terminating, demoting or restructuring an employee out of a protected leave exposes you to an employment standards or human rights complaint; the reinstatement rules are in Ontario's guide.