Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) – Canada

Canada has a national parental benefits system through Employment Insurance. Quebec has its own. And the two do not simply overlap – Quebec opted out of the federal parental benefits component of EI entirely and replaced it with something more generous, more flexible, and administered through an entirely separate provincial agency.

For employers with employees in Quebec, this creates a distinct set of payroll obligations that do not apply anywhere else in the country. Different contribution rates, a different insurable earnings base, a separate remittance destination, and a benefit structure that gives Quebec employees more options than their counterparts in the rest of Canada.

Getting QPIP right is not optional, and the consequences of misconfiguring it – particularly for employers who expand into Quebec from other provinces – range from employee relations problems to regulatory penalties. This guide covers everything employers need to understand about QPIP from a payroll compliance perspective.

Mercans provides fully managed Canadian payroll services, including province-specific QPIP calculations, remittances, and compliance reporting for employers operating in Quebec.

What Is QPIP?

The Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) – in French, the Régime québécois d’assurance parentale (RQAP) – is a provincial income replacement program administered by the Conseil de gestion de l’assurance parentale (CGAP). It provides financial benefits to eligible Quebec residents who take time away from work for:

• Maternity leave (biological mothers only)
• Paternity leave (biological fathers only)
• Parental leave (shared between parents)
• Adoption leave

QPIP came into effect on 1 January 2006, at which point Quebec simultaneously withdrew from the federal Employment Insurance parental benefits program. Quebec employees and employers stopped contributing to the EI parental benefits component and began contributing to QPIP instead – at different rates, to a different agency, under different rules.

The result is a parental benefits system that is, by most measures, more generous than what EI provides to the rest of Canada – higher income replacement rates, shorter waiting periods, and dedicated paternity leave that does not exist in the federal system in the same form.

How QPIP Differs From Federal EI Parental Benefits

Understanding QPIP properly requires understanding what it replaced and how it differs:

The absence of a waiting period alone is significant – EI claimants in the rest of Canada wait one unpaid week before benefits begin. Quebec parents do not.

QPIP Contribution Rates and Insurable Earnings

QPIP is funded through premiums paid by both employees and employers. The rates are set annually by the Quebec government and apply to Quebec insurable earnings – which use a different annual maximum than the federal EI insurable earnings ceiling.

2024 QPIP Rates

The employer’s premium rate is 1.4 times the employee rate – the same multiplier relationship as federal EI, though the underlying rates differ. Once an employee’s Quebec insurable earnings reach the annual maximum, both employee and employer stop contributing for the remainder of the calendar year.

Rates are reviewed annually. Quebec employers should update their payroll configuration each January to reflect any rate changes announced by the Quebec government – rate changes for the coming year are typically published in the fall.

What Counts as Quebec Insurable Earnings?

Quebec insurable earnings for QPIP purposes include most employment income paid to employees who report for work at an establishment in Quebec, or who are paid from a Quebec establishment when they do not report to any fixed location. This includes:

• Regular wages and salary
• Overtime pay
• Commissions
• Bonuses and incentive pay
• Vacation pay when paid as a lump sum or periodically
• Statutory holiday pay
• Retroactive pay increases

Certain amounts are excluded – most notably employer contributions to registered pension plans, group insurance premiums paid by the employer, and reimbursements of genuine business expenses.

The Interaction Between QPIP and Federal EI

This is the area that creates the most confusion for employers expanding into Quebec from other provinces – and it requires careful payroll configuration.

Quebec employees are not exempt from federal EI entirely. They continue to contribute to federal EI for the non-parental benefits it provides – specifically sickness benefits, regular unemployment benefits, compassionate care benefits, and family caregiver benefits. What they do not contribute to is the federal parental benefits component.

The practical result is that Quebec employees pay reduced federal EI premiums compared to employees in the rest of Canada, because the parental component has been carved out. The federal government sets a reduced EI premium rate specifically for Quebec employees to reflect this – the Quebec employee EI rate is lower than the national rate by an amount reflecting the parental benefits exclusion.

For payroll, this means Quebec employees require a separate EI rate configuration from employees in other provinces. An employer running a national payroll who applies the standard federal EI rate to Quebec employees is overcollecting EI premiums from those employees – a compliance error that affects every pay cycle.

The relationship between the two systems looks like this:

QPIP Benefit Plans – Basic and Special

One of QPIP’s distinctive features is the choice between two benefit plans – the Basic Plan and the Special Plan. The plan is chosen by the individual claimant, not the employer, but employers benefit from understanding the structure because employees will ask about it.

Basic Plan

The Basic Plan offers a longer benefit period at varying income replacement rates:

• Maternity benefits: Up to 18 weeks at 70% of average weekly insurable earnings
• Paternity benefits: Up to 5 weeks at 70%
• Parental benefits: Up to 7 weeks at 70%, followed by up to 25 weeks at 55%
• Adoption benefits: Up to 12 weeks at 70%, followed by up to 13 weeks at 55%

Special Plan

The Special Plan offers a shorter benefit period at a consistently higher replacement rate:

• Maternity benefits: Up to 15 weeks at 75%
• Paternity benefits: Up to 3 weeks at 75%
• Parental benefits: Up to 25 weeks at 75%
• Adoption benefits: Up to 28 weeks at 75%

The Special Plan suits parents who prefer a higher weekly payment over a shorter period. The Basic Plan suits those who prioritise duration of coverage. Neither plan is inherently superior – it depends entirely on the family’s financial circumstances, work arrangements, and how they intend to split parental leave between partners.

Total QPIP benefits are calculated on the claimant’s average weekly insurable earnings over the reference period immediately preceding the claim – typically the 26 weeks before the leave begins.

Paternity Leave – A Distinctive QPIP Feature

QPIP’s dedicated paternity benefits deserve specific mention because they represent a meaningful structural difference from the rest of Canada’s approach.

Under QPIP, biological fathers have access to weeks reserved exclusively for them – 5 weeks under the Basic Plan or 3 weeks under the Special Plan. These weeks cannot be transferred to the mother. They are paternity benefits, not shared parental benefits.

This design is deliberate. By giving fathers non-transferable weeks, QPIP creates a financial incentive for fathers to actually take leave – forfeiting the weeks means forfeiting the benefit, not banking it for the mother to use instead. Quebec’s paternity leave take-up rates are substantially higher than the rest of Canada as a result, and the policy is widely regarded as a meaningful contributor to more equitable workplace and family dynamics over time.

For employers, this means Quebec fathers are more likely to take parental leave than fathers elsewhere in Canada – a workforce planning reality that HR and payroll teams should factor into absence management processes.

Self-Employed Workers and QPIP

One of QPIP’s most significant distinctions from federal EI is its treatment of self-employed workers. Under the federal EI system, self-employed individuals can opt into parental benefits coverage on a voluntary basis. Under QPIP, self-employed workers in Quebec are mandatorily covered and must contribute QPIP premiums on their net business income.

For employers engaging workers in Quebec through contractor arrangements, this creates an important classification consideration. If a worker is genuinely self-employed, they handle their own QPIP contributions through their personal tax return. If a worker is misclassified as self-employed but is actually an employee under Quebec labour standards, the employer is liable for the employer QPIP premiums that should have been deducted and remitted throughout the engagement.

Worker misclassification in Quebec carries the same QPIP liability exposure as it does for federal EI and CPP – the employer bears the cost of any missed contributions on both the employee and employer sides.

Employer Obligations Under QPIP

Registration

Employers with employees in Quebec must register for QPIP through Revenu Québec, which administers QPIP premium collection on behalf of CGAP. QPIP premiums are collected alongside Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) contributions and Quebec income tax through the employer’s existing Revenu Québec account – there is no separate registration specifically for QPIP.

Deduction and Remittance

• Deduct the employee QPIP premium from each pay period based on the employee’s Quebec insurable earnings and the applicable rate
• Add the employer’s premium (1.4 times the employee rate) on top
• Remit both to Revenu Québec according to the employer’s remittance frequency – which mirrors the federal remittance schedule (monthly, quarterly, or accelerated depending on average monthly withholdings)
• Stop deducting once the employee’s Quebec insurable earnings for the year reach the annual maximum ($94,000 for 2024)

RL-1 Slip Reporting

At year-end, QPIP premiums deducted from employees must be reported on the RL-1 slip – Quebec’s equivalent of the federal T4. The employee’s QPIP premiums are shown in Box H of the RL-1, and the employer’s QPIP premiums are reported separately. Employees use this information when filing their Quebec income tax return, where QPIP premiums paid are eligible for a provincial tax credit.

Supporting Employees on Leave

Employers are not responsible for adjudicating QPIP claims or paying benefits – that is CGAP’s function. The employee applies directly to CGAP for benefits, and CGAP pays the employee directly. The employer’s obligation during the leave period is to maintain any contractual top-up arrangements they have committed to, continue remitting employer contributions to benefit plans if required under the employment contract, and manage the employee’s return to work in compliance with Quebec labour standards.

Top-Up Arrangements – Employer Supplemental Plans

Many Quebec employers offer Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) plans – contractual arrangements under which the employer tops up QPIP benefits to bring the employee closer to their regular salary during leave. A well-designed SUB plan:

• Can bring total leave income to 75%, 80%, or even 100% of regular salary depending on the employer’s policy
• Does not reduce the employee’s QPIP benefit entitlement – SUB plan payments are specifically designed so they do not trigger a reduction in QPIP benefits the way regular employment income would
• Must be registered with Service Canada (for federal EI purposes) and structured carefully to qualify as a SUB plan rather than regular employment income

Employers offering top-up arrangements should ensure these are properly documented in employment contracts and HR policies, and that payroll correctly distinguishes SUB plan payments from regular wages in both payroll processing and RL-1 reporting.

How Mercans Supports QPIP Compliance in Quebec

Quebec payroll sits at the intersection of federal and provincial obligations – federal EI at Quebec-specific reduced rates, QPIP premiums through Revenu Québec, QPP instead of CPP, Quebec income tax alongside federal income tax, and RL-1 slips alongside T4s. Each element has its own rate, its own ceiling, its own remittance schedule, and its own year-end reporting requirement.

Mercans’ Canada payroll services manage this full compliance stack for Quebec employers:

• Correct QPIP premium calculations at current annual rates, separately from federal EI
• Reduced federal EI rate configuration for Quebec employees
• Premium deduction stops at the correct annual insurable earnings maximum
• Remittance to Revenu Québec on the correct schedule
• RL-1 slip generation with correct QPIP reporting in Box H
• SUB plan payment processing and reporting where employers offer top-up arrangements
• Annual rate updates each January when Quebec publishes revised QPIP premium rates

For multinational employers managing Canadian payroll across multiple provinces – including Quebec alongside common-law provinces – Mercans’ global payroll platform provides the province-specific compliance precision that Quebec’s distinct regulatory environment demands, within a unified reporting framework. Learn more at mercans.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do employers outside Quebec need to worry about QPIP for remote employees working from Quebec?

Yes – and this catches many employers off guard. QPIP obligations are determined by where the employee performs their work, not where the employer is located. An employer headquartered in Ontario with an employee who works remotely from Quebec must deduct QPIP premiums for that employee and apply the reduced Quebec federal EI rate. The employee reports for work at a Quebec location – their home – which triggers Quebec’s provincial payroll obligations in full. As remote work has normalised post-pandemic, the number of employers unintentionally non-compliant with Quebec payroll obligations – including QPIP – has increased significantly. Mercans’ Canada payroll team can audit existing payroll configurations to identify and correct province-of-employment misclassifications.

What is the difference between QPIP maternity benefits and parental benefits, and who can claim each?

Maternity benefits under QPIP are available exclusively to the biological mother – they cannot be shared with or transferred to the other parent. They cover the period around childbirth, including before the birth if the mother stops working in advance of the due date. Parental benefits, by contrast, are available to either parent or split between them – biological or adoptive. Paternity benefits are reserved exclusively for the biological father and cannot be transferred to the mother. This three-way structure – maternity, paternity, and shared parental – is what distinguishes QPIP from the federal system, which has maternity weeks for the birth parent and shared parental weeks but no dedicated paternity weeks.

How does an employer handle QPIP when an employee moves between Quebec and another province during the year?

Province of employment can change during the year – for example, if an employee relocates mid-year or if their primary work location changes. When a Quebec employee moves to another province, the employer switches from QPIP contributions to standard federal EI parental contributions from the date of the change, and the federal EI rate reverts to the standard national rate. The reverse applies when an employee moves into Quebec. The annual contribution maximums are tracked independently – QPIP has its own Quebec insurable earnings maximum, and federal EI has a separate national maximum. Partial-year contributions under each system are calculated based on the earnings attributed to each province of employment during the year.

Are QPIP premiums deductible for employees when filing their Quebec income tax return?

Yes. Employee QPIP premiums paid during the year are eligible for a Quebec provincial tax credit. The credit reduces the employee’s Quebec income tax payable. The QPIP premiums paid are reported in Box H of the RL-1 slip, and employees use this figure when calculating the credit on their Quebec income tax return (Schedule E). This is a meaningful benefit – it partially offsets the cost of contributing to the plan. Employer QPIP premiums are a deductible business expense for the employer. Ensuring RL-1 slips correctly report QPIP premiums is therefore important not just for compliance but for employee financial outcomes at tax filing time.

What happens if an employer incorrectly applies the standard federal EI rate to Quebec employees instead of the reduced Quebec rate?

The employer has overcollected EI premiums from the affected employees and over-remitted to the Canada Revenue Agency. The excess deductions must be corrected – employees are entitled to a refund of the over-deducted amounts. If identified during the year, the employer can reduce EI deductions in subsequent pay periods to correct the cumulative overcollection. If identified after year-end, the employer must file amended T4 and RL-1 slips and the employee reclaims the excess through their personal tax return. The employer may also need to file an amended PD24 form to recover over-remitted employer EI premiums from CRA. This is a systematic error that affects every Quebec employee on the payroll – the correction and remediation process is significantly more time-consuming than getting the configuration right at the outset. Mercans’ payroll compliance specialists can support employers through both the correction process and the configuration review needed to prevent recurrence.