CPP & EI Calculator

YMPE vs YAMPE — the two CPP ceilings. The Year's Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) is the original CPP ceiling: $74,600 in 2026. CPP1 at 5.95% applies on earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and the YMPE. Since 2024 a second ceiling exists — the Year's Additional Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YAMPE), $85,000 in 2026 — and CPP2 at 4% applies on the band between YMPE and YAMPE. The YAMPE is fixed at 114% of the YMPE from 2025 onward, so the second-tier band widens in dollar terms every year. Earnings above the YAMPE attract no CPP at all.

Self-employed CPP is double. Employees split CPP with their employer dollar-for-dollar. If you are self-employed, you pay both halves — the full 11.90% base CPP rate up to the YMPE plus the full 8% CPP2 rate on the YMPE–YAMPE band. On $90,000 of self-employment income in 2026 that is roughly $8,461 of base CPP plus $832 of CPP2. Half of the total is deductible on your return; the other half generates the non-refundable CPP tax credit. The same does not apply to EI: self-employed Canadians do not pay EI premiums unless they opt in to the special benefits program.

How CPP and EI interact with retirement timing. CPP and EI are deducted only on employment and self-employment income — not on RRIF withdrawals, pensions, CPP/OAS payments, dividends, or capital gains. That means the year you stop working, your CPP and EI deductions stop, even though your taxable income may stay high from registered withdrawals. Once you start receiving CPP retirement benefits you can elect out of further CPP contributions from age 65 to 70 by filing Form CPT30 (if still working); before 65, CPP is mandatory on employment income. Every extra year you contribute to CPP2 also nudges up your eventual pension, which is why the decision of when to start CPP and OAS interacts directly with whether you keep working past 60.

EI maximum insurable earnings. EI premiums are capped at the Maximum Insurable Earnings (MIE) — $68,900 in 2026 — a lower ceiling than the CPP YMPE. Once your insurable earnings reach the MIE you stop paying EI for the rest of the year. Quebec residents pay a reduced 1.30% EI rate because the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) covers the maternity and parental benefits that EI provides in the rest of Canada.