Every province in Canada has employment standards legislation that specifies the minimum amount of vacation pay an employer must provide their employees. To help, we've compiled this list to help you quickly and easily locate the information you need.
Provincial / Territorial Vacation Pay Requirements
| Province | Vacation Pay Requirement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | Length of employment less than 1 year = 4% of wages Length of employment 1 to 4 years = 4% of yearly wages Length of employment 5+ years = 6% of wages |
Alberta.ca |
| British Columbia |
Vacation pay is at least 4% of all wages paid in the previous year. After the employee completes 5 years of employment, the employer must pay vacation pay of at least 6% of all wages earned in the previous year. |
gov.bc.ca |
| Manitoba |
Employees must receive at least 2 weeks of vacation per year for the first four years of employment. This increases to a minimum of 3 weeks of vacation after the fifth consecutive year. For each week of vacation, employees are entitled to 2% of the wages earned in that year. |
gov.mb.ca |
| New Brunswick | Period of employment is less than 8 years = 4% of gross wages. Period of employment is 8 years or more = 6% of gross wages. |
gnb.ca |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Vacation pay is calculated as 4% of gross wages, including commissions and overtime for employees who have worked less than 15 continuous years with the same employer. Vacation pay is calculated as 6% of gross earnings for employees with 15 years or more of continuous employment with the same employer. |
gov.nl.ca |
| Northwest Territories | 4% of their total gross wages as vacation pay for the first five years of employment. Upon completion of the 5th year, vacation pay is earned at the rate of 6%. |
ece.gov.nt.ca |
| Nova Scotia | Employers must pay employees vacation pay of at least 4% of gross wages. Vacation pay earnings increase to 6% of gross wages at the start of an employee's eighth year of service (after completing 7 years). |
novascotia.ca |
| Nunavut |
Vacation pay means 4% of the total gross wages of an employee from the start date of work and for the first five (5) years of employment. This increases to 6% of the total gross wages of an employee for the sixth and subsequent years of work with the same employer. |
nu-lsco.ca |
| Ontario | An employee whose period of employment is less than five years is entitled to 4% of all the wages earned in the vacation entitlement year. An employee whose period of employment is five years or more is entitled to 6% of all the wages earned in the vacation entitlement year. |
ontario.ca |
| Prince Edward island | If the same employer employs an employee for less than eight years, vacation pay is at least 4%. If an employee is employed continuously by the same employer for eight years or more, vacation pay of at least 6%. |
princeedwardisland.ca |
| Saskatchewan | During the first nine years of employment, multiply the employee's wages for the 12-month period by 3/52 (5.77%). Once an employee has completed 10 years of employment with the same employer, the employee is eligible for four weeks of vacation in the upcoming year and vacation pay of 4/52 (7.69%). |
saskatchewan.ca |
| Yukon | Vacation pay is calculated as at least 4% of an employee's gross wages. | yukon.ca |
About Accruing Vacation & Terminations
Six provinces/territories accrue vacation pay on previously earned vacation pay: BC, AB, SK, NL, NU, and NT.
We recommend that admins switch terminated employees from the Accrued method to the Pay Out method before processing their final pay. (Especially in these 6 provinces!) This ensures a clean Vacation Payout that will zero out their accrued vacation balance.
Looking for more details?
To help ensure the most accurate information is available to you, we recommend visiting the website for your region directly. You'll find a link to each province/territory's policies in the table above.
Help us keep this page up to date by notifying Humi if a source link is no longer working.