Default relationship; terminable without cause only with statutory notice/severance and, absent an enforceable clause, common-law reasonable notice that can far exceed statutory minimums
Permitted with no statutory maximum, but early termination without an enforceable clause can make the employer liable for wages to the end of the term.
Federal overtime beyond 40 hrs/week at 1.5x (48-hr general max); Ontario overtime starts after 44 hrs
No formal statutory probation; no termination notice owed during the first 3 months (federal and most provinces)
Regulated professions (engineers, accountants, lawyers, health professionals) require provincial licensing to use protected titles
CPP 5.95% (2026 YMPE CAD 74,600) plus CPP2 4% up to CAD 85,000, EI 2.28% (1.4x employee rate, capped at CAD 68,900), plus provincial payroll taxes (e.g. Ontario EHT up to 1.95%) and workers' compensation premiums
CPP 5.95% up to CAD 74,600 (plus 4% CPP2 to CAD 85,000) and EI 1.63% capped at CAD 68,900 (2026). Progressive federal and provincial income tax varies by province and income.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Employers are required to make contributions to social security programs on behalf of their employees. Benefits derived from social security are:
Workers' compensation is mandatory and administered provincially (e.g. WSIB in Ontario), funded entirely by employer premiums set by industry risk class, providing wage-loss benefits, healthcare and return-to-work support.
Federally regulated employees with 12+ months' service receive severance equal to the greater of 2 days' wages per year of service or 5 days' wages, on top of graduated notice of 2-8 weeks. In Ontario, employees with 5+ years at employers with CAD 2.5M+ payroll receive an additional week per year up to 26 weeks, and common-law reasonable notice can substantially exceed statutory minimums.
There is no statutory 13th-month salary in Canada. Annual performance bonuses are common in many industries but are entirely contractual.
P.S. our team speaks multiple languages and we'd love to chat in your preferred language if requested.
Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
