Employee Benefits Statistics in Canada

Canada has a competitive job market and employee benefits play an important role in attracting and retaining employees. Comprehensive benefits packages have become a critical factor for Canadians when choosing an employer. Benefits packages can also impact job satisfaction, loyalty to an employer, and workers’ overall well-being.

All Canadians are entitled to some mandatory employment benefits but employees are increasingly offering additional benefits. These additional benefits range from health insurance to retirement plans.

This article explores the range of mandatory and supplementary employment benefits in Canada through statistics.

Employee Benefits Statistics for Canadians

• Pension is a key mandatory employment benefit and includes everyone earning over $3,500 per year.
• Employment insurance can be claimed for sick leave, compassionate leave, and by new parents and the standard rate is 55% of weekly insurable income.
• Maternity leave is 15 weeks (or 18 in Quebec) and paternity leave is 5 weeks in Canada.
• Standard parental leave is 35 weeks and extended is 61 weeks.
• 99% of Canadian employers offer supplementary healthcare insurance for salaried workers.
• 84% of Canadian companies offer supplementary benefits to attract employees.
• Mental health support is a focus area for 77% of Canadian companies.
• Most Canadians will consider what benefits a company offers before accepting a job.
• Over 60% of Canadian companies offer education on self-care to support the mental well-being of employees.
• Flexible working hours have become an increasingly important benefit for Canadians.
• Almost ⅗ of Canadian companies offer preventative health benefits.

Mandatory Employment Benefits in Canada

In Canada, all workers are entitled to a range of benefits, which include pension, maternity, paternity, and parental leave, paid time off (PTO), and employment insurance.

Pension

Canada has a mandatory pension plan (CPP), which includes all workers except for those who earn less than $3,500 per year. It also excludes workers in Quebec who receive pension benefits under the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) which works on the same principles as the CPP.

The CPP provides employees with monthly payments once they retire. How much those payments will be depends on how much a person earns during their working life. The Canadian federal government sets a maximum pensionable earnings amount for each year, which is the maximum salary amount for pension contributions. In 2024, the amount is $68,500.
The federal government introduced an additional tier to pensionable earnings in 2024 known as CPP2. This requires employees who earn between $68,500 and $73,200 to contribute a second time. at a rate of 4% to a maximum of $188.

Employment Insurance in Canada

For most employees in Canada, the benefit is 55% of the average insurable weekly income up to a maximum amount. In 2024, the maximum yearly income is $63,200, which is $668 per week. The maximum period the benefit can be paid for varies from 14 weeks to 45 weeks. It depends on the unemployment rates in the region as well as the hours accumulated in employment during the last 52 weeks or since the last claim by the employee, whichever is shorter.

Employment insurance benefits are paid in case of sickness, maternity, paternity, and parental leave, and compassionate care leave.

Maternity, Paternity, and Parental Benefits

All Canadian parents are entitled to paid time off when they become parents. This includes adopting a child. Maternity, paternity, and parental leaves are all job-protected, meaning the employer has to maintain the employee’s role until the employee is able to return to work.

All biological mothers, including surrogate mothers are entitled to 15 weeks off. In Quebec, which has its own system, the leave is 18 weeks. Maternity leave can start from the twelfth week before the expected due date to as late as 17 weeks after the due date.

Paternity leave in Canada is five weeks. However, fathers in Canada can share parental leave with the mother. Parental leave is available for both biological and adoptive parents. The standard parental leave is 35 weeks, which can be shared in whichever way the parents prefer. With standard parental leave, the parent will get 55% of their income up to a maximum of $668 per week. Extended parental leave is 61 weeks plus eight weeks of paternity leave. The rate is 33% of income up to a maximum of $401 per week.

Supplementary Employment Benefits in Canada

Supplementary benefits can vary from one employer to the next. However, there are some common supplementary employment benefits, which include retirement plans, healthcare insurance, flexible and voluntary benefits, gym memberships, healthcare spending accounts, and corporate wellness programmes. Employers are also increasingly including mental health training, virtual care, and digital health and fitness platforms among benefits offered.

Retirement Plans

One of the most common additional benefits offered by Canadian employers is retirement plans that provide extra income during retirement. Generally these are a combination of individual and employer contributions where the employer matches the contribution made by the employee. The payments are usually deducted directly from your pay. The payroll deductions are then placed into a tax-free savings account.

Healthcare Insurance

Although Canada has universal healthcare, which means most necessary healthcare is free, supplementary healthcare coverage is another important additional benefit offered by employers. This is because the universal healthcare system does not cover all healthcare expenses such as prescription medicines, eyecare, and dental care. Extended healthcare insurance usually includes cover for prescription drugs, hospital stays, paramedical practitioners, and supplementary health care, such as physiotherapy. Many of them also offer coverage for out-of-country healthcare.

Virtually all Canadian employers (99%) offer supplementary healthcare coverage for salaried employees. 77% of Canadian employers pay 100% of the healthcare insurance premiums for salaried employees.

51% of Canadian employers also offer extended healthcare insurance to hour workers. 73% of these employers pay 100% of the healthcare insurance premiums.

Voluntary Employment Benefits

Larger employers in Canada often provide their employees with a range of so-called voluntary benefits. These are benefits that can be provided at discounted rates through the employer such as pet insurance and virtual wellness.

Flexible Employment Benefits

Flexible benefit plans are highly desired in Canada but mainly offered by larger employers only at the moment. However, recently some flexible benefits plans have come to the market that are suitable for smaller companies, too. These types of benefits can include, for example, access to wellness platforms and employer-funded spending accounts.

Main Reasons Canadian Employers Offer Supplementary benefits

The biggest reason employers in Canada are offering additional benefits is competition for talent at 84%. Another key reason is the rise in mental health issues, cited by 63% of companies as a reason to offer supplementary benefits. The third biggest reason, at 48%, is that the benefits can support inclusion and diversity at the workplace.

What Employers See As Main Challenges When Creating Benefits Packages?

The main challenges for Canadian employers when planning their benefits packages is managing the costs of the plans. 59% of employers consider this as the top challenge. 40% of companies also see the persistent higher inflation as a challenge and see it impacting their benefit budgets over the next two years.

What Are the Focus Areas When Planning Benefits Packages?

Three key areas employers focus on when planning their benefits offering are mental health support, health benefits, and overall well-being with 77%, 59%, and 45% of companies citing these as key focus areas. Mental health support especially has been a highlight since the COVID-19 pandemic. 50% of Canadian employers also want to focus on their offered benefits meeting the needs of all employees and 44% want to use them to encourage inclusion and diversity at the workplace.

4/5 Canadians Consider Health Benefits Before Accepting a New Role

A study conducted by Blue Cross found that 80% of Canadians would consider health benefits offered before accepting a new role. In addition, 73% of Canadians who currently have health benefits say they would stay with their current employer even if a new employer offered them more money but no health benefits.

Almost 1/2 of Employees Would Prefer Health Benefits Over a Pay Increase

Canadian employees who work for small businesses say they consider health benefits more important than a pay increase. 49% of workers said they would choose health benefits if they had to choose between a health benefits plan and a raise. 41% of employees would choose health benefits rather than a $25,000 pay rise and 50% would choose benefits instead of a $10,000 pay rise.

89% of employees in Canada say that benefits plans are important for their security and financial health. Especially health benefits are seen as something that is important to the employees peace of mind.

Mental Health Focus

Providing support with mental health has become increasingly important and many employers have been quick to act. In Canada, 64% of companies offer education on self-care and 57% offer access to virtual therapy networks. In addition, 49% of companies have mental health training for managers and 48% have online assessments and/or resiliency training.

Employees Are Looking for Non-Traditional Benefits

While health insurance remains a key benefit employees look for, they are also increasingly looking for non-traditional benefits. 64% of employees indicate a preference for flexible working hours, 56% for remote working options, and 40% for a shorter workweek.

However, only 44% of employers were offering flexible work hours in 2023. Even fewer were offering remote working options at 35% and just 22% offered shorter working weeks.

Preventative And Educational Benefits Are Becoming More Common

To respond to the changing requirements of the labour force, Canadian companies are introducing a range of new benefits that focus on education and prevention. Almost 60% of Canadian companies are offering ergonomic assessments, while 55% offer telemedicine to support physical well-being. 45% of employers offer fitness subsidies and 28% offer integrated health and wellbeing platforms.

Many employers are also meeting their employees’ financial wellness needs. For example, 59% of companies offer discount programmes, 51% provide budgeting and/or other financial wellness education, and 36% offer financial coaching.

Conclusion

Canadian companies and institutions offer a range of supplementary benefits on top of the mandatory benefits. While the mandatory benefits are the same throughout Canada, except for Quebec which has its own systems, supplementary benefits vary from one company to the next.

However, common benefits include health insurance, which is offered by 99% of employers and pension plans.
Canada has labour force shortages in many employment sectors and one way companies can attract skilled employees is to offer comprehensive benefits packages on top of competitive salaries.

While some benefits, such as health insurance, are often completely covered by the employer, other benefits, for example, pension, require contributions from the employee as well, while other benefits allow employees to receive discounts, for example, on gym memberships or other well-being services.