EI Estimator: Your Weekly Benefit at 55%

Enter your usual weekly pay and see your EI weekly benefit — 55% of insurable earnings, up to the 2026 maximum of $729 a week — plus what that adds up to over a claim.

Your usual gross weekly pay

$/ week

Use your pay before deductions. EI insures earnings up to $1,325 a week in 2026, so the benefit caps at $729.

Weekly benefit

$440

per week, before tax

Over 20 weeks

$8,800

a mid-length claim

Over 45 weeks

$19,800

the maximum duration

At $800 a week of pay, EI replaces 55% — $440 a week.

How the amount is set

Employment Insurance pays 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings, using your highest-paid weeks in the qualifying period. For 2026, insurable earnings top out at $68,900 a year ($1,325 a week), which is why the weekly benefit tops out at $729 — once your pay reaches $1,325 a week, earning more does not raise the benefit.

Two things the estimator cannot know: your best weeks calculation (Service Canada averages your strongest weeks, which can lift the result above a straight 55% of an average week) and your weeks of entitlement. Duration is set separately from your insurable hours and your region’s unemployment rate — between 14 and 45 weeks for regular benefits. The EI regular benefits guide walks through both, and sickness benefits use the same 55% formula for up to 26 weeks.

Before the first payment

Almost every claim serves a one-week waiting period — an unpaid week at the start, like a deductible. Budget for it: the first deposit is smaller and later than most people expect, and every payment after that arrives as you file your biweekly reports.

EI is taxable income, and tax is withheld from each payment. The figures here are before that withholding.