The formula. The employee premium is the employee rate multiplied by the smaller of your annual insurable earnings and the maximum insurable earnings for the year. The employer premium is 1.4 times the employee premium. For example, in 2026 outside Quebec, $50,000 of insurable earnings gives an employee premium of $50,000 times 1.63%, which is $815.00, and an employer premium of $815.00 times 1.4, which is $1,141.00.
The published figures. The Agency's EI premium rates and maximums table lists, for 2026, maximum insurable earnings of $68,900, an employee rate of 1.63% outside Quebec with a maximum annual employee premium of $1,123.07 and a maximum annual employer premium of $1,572.30, and an employee rate of 1.30% in Quebec with a maximum annual employee premium of $895.70 and a maximum annual employer premium of $1,253.98. For 2027 the same table lists maximum insurable earnings of $70,800, an employee rate of 1.64% outside Quebec with a maximum annual employee premium of $1,161.12 and a maximum annual employer premium of $1,625.57, and an employee rate of 1.29% in Quebec with a maximum annual employee premium of $913.32 and a maximum annual employer premium of $1,278.65. The table's own legend states the employer's premium is 1.4 times the employee's rate.
The per-period premium. The annual premium is divided by the number of pay periods in the year. At $50,000 of 2026 earnings outside Quebec, paid bi-weekly, the employee premium is $815.00 divided by 26, which is $31.35 per paycheque. Premiums stop once the annual maximum is reached, so later paycheques in the year carry no EI deduction.
The date the cap is hit. If your earnings are above the maximum insurable earnings, the cap is reached partway through the year. This calculator assumes your pay is spread evenly across the year, with the first payday at the end of the first pay period, and works out the pay period in which your cumulative insurable earnings reach the maximum. At $100,000 of 2027 earnings in Quebec, paid monthly, each paycheque carries $8,333.33 of insurable earnings, so the $70,800 maximum is reached in the 9th pay period, around September 1, 2027. If your pay is uneven — bonuses, overtime, or a mid-year raise — the real date moves.
Why Quebec is lower. The rate is lower in Quebec because Quebec has its own maternity, parental, and adoption benefits under the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, as the Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada both state. Quebec workers and their employers pay QPIP premiums separately to Revenu Québec, on top of the reduced EI premium shown here.
What this calculator leaves out. QPIP premiums; the fact that the maximum applies separately with each employer; earnings that are not insurable, which the Agency's insurable-earnings rules decide; and any premium reduction an employer qualifies for under the EI Premium Reduction Program, which lowers the employer's rate for employers with a qualifying short-term disability plan.
Sources: Canada Revenue Agency, EI premium rates and maximums (the 2026 and 2027 maximum insurable earnings, employee rates, and maximum annual employee and employer premiums, for workers outside Quebec and in Quebec; the employer's premium is 1.4 times the employee's), and Employment and Social Development Canada, Important notice about maximum insurable earnings for 2026 (the 2026 maximum insurable earnings of $68,900, the 2026 rates of 1.63% outside Quebec and 1.30% in Quebec, and the reason the Quebec rate is lower), both opened at build time on November 8, 2026. No figure on this page comes from anywhere else.