Tax & employment
Estimate federal Employment Insurance benefits outside Quebec or Quebec Parental Insurance Plan benefits, with an optional employer top-up target.
✓ 2026 rules · Last verified August 2026 · Based on official Canadian sourcesEstimated government benefits
Planning estimate — not financial advice.
Understand the result
Quebec residents generally use the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, which offers a basic or special plan with different rates and week limits. Eligible parents outside Quebec generally use federal Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits.
For federal Employment Insurance, uses the 2026 maternity and standard parental rate of 55% up to $729 weekly and the extended parental rate of 33% up to $437 weekly. For Quebec, caps average earnings at the 2026 maximum insurable income of $103,000 and applies the selected Quebec Parental Insurance Plan basic or special plan rates and week limits.
This planning estimate does not determine eligibility, shared-week allocation, additional sharing incentives, income adjustments, waiting periods, taxes or employer-plan rules. Verify your result with the official program.
Recommended next step
Use the next calculator to check another part of the same financial question.
Estimate a regular Employment Insurance weekly benefit and total over entered weeks.
Continue →View every calculator in this category →Helpful answers
Outside Quebec, eligible workers may receive EI maternity and parental benefits based on insurable earnings, subject to the benefit type and annual maximum. Quebec residents generally use the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) rather than EI maternity and parental benefits.
Standard EI parental benefits pay a higher weekly percentage for a shorter maximum period, while extended parental benefits pay a lower percentage for a longer period. Once parental benefits have been paid, changing between the two options can be restricted.
The duration depends on whether you are referring to job-protected leave under employment standards or income-replacement benefits. EI provides defined maternity and parental benefit periods, while provincial employment standards determine job-protected leave entitlements.
EI maternity benefits are generally calculated from average insurable weekly earnings using the applicable benefit rate, up to the annual weekly maximum. Eligibility and the start of the benefit period also matter.
Quebec residents generally receive maternity, paternity, parental and adoption benefits through QPIP/RQAP, which has its own plans, benefit percentages and maximum insurable earnings rather than the standard EI parental-benefit structure.
Methodology & official sources
For federal Employment Insurance, uses the 2026 maternity and standard parental rate of 55% up to $729 weekly and the extended parental rate of 33% up to $437 weekly. For Quebec, caps average earnings at the 2026 maximum insurable income of $103,000 and applies the selected Quebec Parental Insurance Plan basic or special plan rates and week limits.
This planning estimate does not determine eligibility, shared-week allocation, additional sharing incentives, income adjustments, waiting periods, taxes or employer-plan rules. Verify your result with the official program.
ca.expanded.2026.v1 · Effective 2026-01-01 · 2026 rules · Last verified August 2026 · Based on official Canadian sources