Vacation Pay Calculator Canada

This first release covers federally regulated employment plus Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. It does not replace collective-agreement or industry-specific rules.

Where the percentage steps up

Every one of these jurisdictions starts at 4% and moves to 6%, but they disagree about when — and the federal Code has a third step that no province here matches:

• Federally regulated: 2 weeks and 4% after 1 year, 3 weeks and 6% after 5 consecutive years, 4 weeks and 8% after 10 consecutive years.
• Ontario: 2 weeks and 4% below 5 years of employment, 3 weeks and 6% at 5 years or more.
• British Columbia: 2 weeks after 12 months and 4% of wages, 3 weeks and 6% after 5 years.
• Alberta: no vacation entitlement until 1 year, then 2 weeks and 4%, rising to 3 weeks and 6% after 5 consecutive years.
• Quebec: under 1 year, 1 day per full month of uninterrupted service to a maximum of 2 weeks, at 4%; 1 to 3 years, 2 weeks at 4%; from 3 years, 3 consecutive weeks at 6%.

Because the tool reports whole weeks, the Quebec first-year row shows a single week as a stand-in for the day-per-month accrual — read the percentage there rather than the week count. Ontario adds a rule worth knowing if you cross the threshold mid-year: an employee who reaches five years of employment part-way through a vacation entitlement year is entitled to 6% of all the wages earned in that year, not a blended rate.

What the percentage is applied to

“Vacationable wages” is the input most often entered wrong, because each jurisdiction draws the line somewhere else. The federal Code applies the percentage to gross wages earned in the year of employment, where wages mean every form of payment for work performed but exclude tips and gratuities. Ontario uses gross wages earned in the vacation entitlement year and explicitly takes vacation pay itself out of the base. British Columbia goes the other way and includes statutory holiday pay, employment standards paid sick days and previously paid vacation pay in total wages. Alberta excludes overtime pay, general holiday pay, termination pay, an unearned bonus, tips and gratuities, and expenses and allowances. Quebec applies the rate to gross wages earned during the reference year.

Commissions are generally in. British Columbia says commission salespeople earn vacation pay on all commissions and that it cannot be folded into the commission rate.

The 12 months you measure are not the calendar year

Federally, the accrual window is a “year of employment” — 12 consecutive months from your hire date, from an anniversary of it, or another 12-month period the employer sets under the regulations. Ontario uses a vacation entitlement year that ordinarily runs from the date of hire, and where an employer has adopted a common start date instead, the gap in between is a “stub period” with its own pro-rated entitlement. In Quebec the reference year is usually 1 May to 30 April unless a decree, collective agreement or the employer sets other dates. Pull the gross figure for that window, not for January to December.

Timing of the payout differs too. British Columbia requires vacation pay at least seven days before the vacation begins unless there is a written agreement to pay it each cheque; federally it may be paid within 14 days before the vacation, or during or immediately after it where that is impractical or is the established practice.

Limits of this estimate

This is a statutory minimum for five jurisdictions. Contracts and collective agreements routinely provide more and are enforceable where they do. Several categories of worker sit outside the standard entirely — Alberta publishes a list of exempt industries and professions, and British Columbia treats piece-rate farm workers as having vacation pay built into the piece rate. If you work in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island or one of the territories, none of these five rule sets applies to you and we have deliberately not guessed at yours.