How your benefit is calculated
Your weekly EI benefit is 55% of your average weekly insurable earnings — but that average is not taken over your whole qualifying period. Service Canada takes your best weeks: the highest-paid weeks of insurable earnings in your qualifying period (usually the 52 weeks before your claim, or since your last claim, whichever is shorter). How many best weeks count depends on your region's unemployment rate: 14 weeks where unemployment is highest, rising to 22 weeks where it is lowest. The idea is that a few bad weeks — a short layoff, a slow month — should not drag down your benefit.
The calculation, in order, is: add up your insurable earnings in your best weeks, divide by the number of those weeks (the divisor), and take 55% of the result, capped at the annual maximum. If you received separation money (vacation pay, severance, or a retiring allowance), it is allocated over a period after your last day of work, and benefits are generally not paid for weeks covered by that allocation.
- Formula: (total insurable earnings in your best weeks ÷ divisor) × 55%, capped at the annual maximum.
- Divisor: 14 best weeks in the highest-unemployment regions, up to 22 weeks in the lowest-unemployment regions.
- Worked example (2026): average weekly earnings of $1,000 → benefit $550 per week. At $1,325 or more → the $729 maximum.
- Separation money is allocated after your last day of work and delays the start of payable benefits for the weeks it covers.
Worked examples
| Average weekly insurable earnings | 55% benefit (2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| $500 | $275 | Below the maximum at any earnings level |
| $800 | $440 | Typical mid-range result |
| $1,000 | $550 | — |
| $1,325 or more | $729 | Capped at the 2026 maximum |
For 2025 the same examples give $275, $440, and $550 — only the cap differs ($695 instead of $729, reached at average weekly earnings of about $1,264). A second example shows why the divisor matters: suppose your best 22 weeks total $22,000. Your average is $1,000 per week and your benefit is $550. If your region's divisor were 14 instead, and your best 14 weeks totalled $15,400, your average would be $1,100 and your benefit $605 — the same worker, a higher benefit, because fewer (better) weeks were counted. The divisor is set by your region's rate at the time your claim starts and does not change during the claim.
What counts as insurable earnings
Insurable earnings are the earnings on which EI premiums were paid: salary, wages, overtime, vacation pay, and most taxable benefits from insurable employment. They do not include earnings above the annual maximum insurable earnings, earnings from employment that is not insurable (for example, most self-employment, unless you opted in for special benefits), or income that is not employment income at all, such as investment income. Your Record of Employment (ROE) is the document Service Canada uses to verify your hours and earnings: your employer must issue it when you stop working, and you can check it in your My Service Canada Account.
If your ROE shows fewer hours or lower earnings than you actually had, that error flows straight into your benefit calculation — so check the ROE as soon as it appears, and ask your employer to amend it if it is wrong. If your employer will not issue an ROE, Service Canada can still process your claim from other evidence, but it will take longer.
Taxes and deductions from your benefit
EI benefits are taxable income. Service Canada deducts federal (and, where applicable, provincial or territorial) income tax from each payment, and you receive a T4E slip at tax time. If you owe money to the government — for example, an EI overpayment, a tax debt, or a court-ordered support payment — part of your benefit can be garnished or redirected. You can also ask Service Canada to increase the tax deducted, which some claimants prefer to avoid a tax bill in April. The benefit amount quoted in these guides is always the gross amount before tax.
Sources to check: Service Canada, EI regular benefit — How much could you receive; CLEO, How much will I get (best-weeks divisor 14 to 22); Employment Insurance Act, s. 14 (benefit rate).