Working While on EI Benefits: What You Keep

You're on Employment Insurance and someone offers you a few days of work. The first question is always the same: is it worth it, or will it all be taken back off the benefit? The federal program has a precise rule for this, and it is kinder than most people expect — up to a certain threshold, past which a dollar earned brings you nothing. Here is the math, week by week.

Where your benefit starts

Before talking about earnings, you need to know what the reduction applies to. Service Canada starts from your average insurable weekly earnings, meaning the average of what you were making each week before you lost your job. The regular benefit is 55% of that average.

That percentage stops at a ceiling. As of January 1, 2026, the maximum yearly insurable earnings amount is $68,900, which works out to a maximum benefit of $729 per week. Having earned more than that before the layoff does not buy you a bigger benefit.

The details of that starting calculation — the best weeks, the family supplement — are covered in our article on how EI benefits are calculated.

The 50-cent rule

Working while on claim does not make the benefit disappear: it reduces it. The rule fits in one sentence — you keep 50 cents of your benefits for every dollar you earn.

In concrete terms: every dollar earned costs you 50 cents of benefit. You take in the dollar and lose half a dollar, so your income for the week goes up by 50 cents. Working always pays something, but only half of what the wage says on paper.

Service Canada's own example

John was earning $500 a week. His benefit is $275, which is 55% of $500. He finds a part-time job, three days a week, paying $300 a week.

His benefits are reduced by $150, half of the $300 he earned. So he receives $125 in benefits. Together with his wages, his income for the week is $425, instead of the $275 he would have had staying home. Those $300 of work brought him $150 more.

The 90% cap: where it stops paying

The 50-cent rule does not run forever. It applies up to 90% of your previous weekly earnings. Above that cap, your benefits are deducted dollar-for-dollar: one dollar earned removes one dollar of benefit.

In John's case the cap is $450, which is 90% of the $500 he used to make each week. Here is what the rule gives at different levels of earnings, built on that same example.

Read the last column from top to bottom: it climbs from $275 to $500, then it stops. Between $450 and $500 of earnings the total no longer moves, because each dollar earned above the cap replaces exactly one dollar of benefit. Once the benefit has dropped to zero, the dollars after that are fully yours again.

A full week of work

There is one case where the 50-cent rule does not apply at all. You are not eligible for benefits if you work a full week, regardless of the amount you earn. That is no longer a reduction, it is a week with no benefit.

That week is not lost, though: the total number of weeks payable on your claim is not reduced.

Reporting earnings in the right week

While you are receiving benefits, you must submit reports every 2 weeks. If you work or earn money, you must indicate it on your report, whether you are working for someone else or for yourself.

The timing of the report is what trips up the most people. You must report your work earnings and hours for each week you work, in the week in which the work occurred. In other words, it is the week of work that counts, not the date the pay lands: a cheque received two weeks later still belongs to the week the hours were done. And it is the amount before deductions, the gross, that you enter.

What is left after tax and deductions

Every figure above is a gross figure. Two sets of deductions come next, and they hit both sources of income.

On the benefit side: EI payments are taxable income, and federal and provincial tax are deducted from your payments.

On the wage side: your part-time pay carries the usual Quebec deductions, meaning income tax, QPP, QPIP and the EI premium. For that last one, the employee rate in Quebec is 1.30% in 2026, against 1.63% elsewhere in Canada, up to a maximum premium of $895.70 for the year. Yes, you pay EI premiums on wages earned while you are collecting EI.

To see what a pay cheque actually leaves you once those deductions are taken, put the gross into the Quebec net salary calculator.

In practice, before you accept the hours

Three habits are enough to know where you stand.

1. Work out your cap. Take your old weekly pay and multiply it by 0.9. Below that amount, every dollar earned leaves you half a dollar. Above it, it leaves you nothing extra.
2. Think in weeks, not months. The reduction is calculated week by week. Four days packed into a single week do not have the same effect as the same four days spread over two weeks, and a full week cancels that week's benefit.
3. Report everything, in the right week. Earnings left out, or reported at the wrong time, create an overpayment you have to pay back later.

If your hours settle down and part-time work becomes your main income, the calculation changes in nature: it is no longer about reduced benefits but about an ordinary pay cheque, which our article on part-time pay in Quebec breaks down week by week.