EI Maternity & Parental Maximum Weekly Amount 2026: $729 Standard, $437 Extended (By Salary)

The 2026 Maximum Weekly Amounts — All Three Numbers

The short answer: in 2026, EI maternity and standard parental benefits pay a maximum of $729 per week, and extended parental benefits pay a maximum of $437 per week. Both caps flow from the same input — the 2026 maximum insurable earnings (MIE) of $68,900. Maternity and standard parental pay 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings; extended parental pays 33%. Once your salary reaches $68,900, you are at the ceiling, and every dollar you earn above that adds nothing to your benefit.

Here is the full 2026 structure for the benefit year, straight from the Employment and Social Development Canada schedule:

One detail most applicants miss: if you choose the extended option, your 15 maternity weeks still pay at the 55% rate. Only the parental weeks drop to 33%. So a birth parent on the extended path collects up to $729/week for 15 weeks, then up to $437/week for up to 61 more.

A note for Quebec residents: Quebec runs its own program, the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP), with different rates, maximums, and a dedicated paternity benefit. The figures in this article are the federal EI numbers that apply in Ontario and every other province and territory.

Your Exact Weekly Amount by Salary

The 55% and 33% rates apply to your average insurable weekly earnings, so your weekly cheque scales with salary until it hits the cap. Assuming steady pay across your highest-earning weeks, here is what 2026 benefits look like at common salary levels:

Your actual number can land higher than the simple salary division. Service Canada does not average your whole year — it uses your best weeks: your 14 to 22 highest-paid weeks in the past 52, with the exact count set by the unemployment rate in your economic region — the higher the local rate, the fewer best weeks used, which works in your favour. Check Service Canada's economic region lookup for the Toronto region's current number before estimating. If your pay included overtime, commissions, or a bonus concentrated in certain weeks, those weeks drive the calculation. Timing a claim around strong earning weeks is one of the legitimate levers covered in our guide to maximizing EI benefits.

Standard vs Extended: The Math Nobody Does Before Choosing

The extended option is marketed as "more time with your baby," and it is — but the price is a roughly 40% cut to your weekly cheque, and the total extra money is smaller than almost everyone assumes.

At the cap ($68,900+ salary)

• Maternity: 15 weeks × $729 = $10,935 (same under both options)
• Standard parental, one parent: 35 weeks × $729 = $25,515
• Extended parental, one parent: 61 weeks × $437 = $26,657

Extended delivers just $1,142 more in total than standard — in exchange for stretching the money across 26 extra weeks. In monthly terms, the standard option pays roughly $3,159 a month at the cap; extended pays roughly $1,894. For a Toronto or Mississauga household carrying a mortgage, that monthly gap is usually the deciding number, not the total.

At a $60,000 salary

A Brampton parent earning $60,000 gets about $635/week at 55% and $381/week at 33%. The full leave totals: maternity plus standard parental comes to roughly $31,750 over 50 weeks, while maternity plus extended parental comes to roughly $32,766 over 76 weeks. That is about $1,016 more under extended — spread over six additional months. The extended option is not "more money." It is nearly the same money, sliced thinner.

The lock-in

Once the first parental benefit payment goes out, the option is permanent for both parents. There is no appeal, no switch, no do-over for that child. I have seen the regret run in both directions, but the painful version is always the same one: a family picks extended for the 18 months, discovers around month 8 that $437/week does not cover their share of the bills, and has no way back to the $729 rate. Two checks before you apply: first, confirm whether your employer top-up assumes the standard option — most top-up plans pay a percentage of salary for a fixed number of weeks and quietly stop regardless of which EI option you chose, leaving months 13-18 of an extended leave at $437/week alone. Second, budget the household on the extended weekly number for a full month before committing. If the trial month fails on paper, it will fail in practice.

Eligibility: The 600-Hour Rule and the Timing Windows

Qualifying for maternity and parental benefits is more forgiving than regular EI in one important way: the hours requirement is a flat 600 insured hours in the 52 weeks before your claim (or since your last claim), regardless of where you live. Regular EI requires 420-700 hours depending on your regional unemployment rate; maternity and parental benefits do not vary. You also need to show your regular weekly earnings have dropped by more than 40% for at least one week.

The timing rules that catch people:

• Maternity start window: benefits can begin as early as 12 weeks before your due date, and cannot be paid more than 17 weeks after the birth or due date, whichever is later.
• Parental deadlines: standard parental weeks must be used within 52 weeks (12 months) of the birth or adoption placement; extended within 78 weeks (18 months).
• Waiting period: one unpaid week at the start of the claim. Budget for it — your first payment arrives later than most new parents expect.
• Application deadline: apply as soon as you stop working. Waiting more than 4 weeks after your last day of work can cost you benefit weeks you cannot recover.

Sharing Weeks Between Parents: The 5 and 8 Bonus Weeks

Ottawa pays families to split the leave. If both parents claim parental benefits, the pool grows: 40 weeks of standard instead of 35, or 69 weeks of extended instead of 61. The bonus weeks are use-it-or-lose-it for the second parent — one parent can never collect more than 35 standard or 61 extended weeks, so the extra 5 or 8 weeks only exist if the other parent takes them.

At the 2026 cap, those 5 shared standard weeks are worth 5 × $729 = $3,645 of benefits a single-claimant family simply forfeits. Both parents can collect during the same calendar weeks (a genuine both-at-home month is allowed), and each parent qualifies independently — meaning each needs their own 600 insured hours and files their own claim. The split itself is flexible: 35/5, 20/20, 30/10 — any combination works within the per-parent caps.

The Family Supplement, the Tax Bite, and the $729 Ceiling

Two adjustments can move your weekly number after the basic calculation. The first helps: families with annual net family income of $25,921 or less, at least one child under 18, and a Canada Child Benefit entitlement get the family supplement added automatically to each payment. Even with the supplement, the total cannot exceed $729/week. The income-tested design will feel familiar if you have ever looked at how the federal benefit system treats seniors — the same taper-by-income logic that drives the GIS income thresholds shows up here at the start of family life.

The second adjustment hurts: EI benefits are fully taxable, and the tax withheld from each payment is calculated as though EI were your only income. In a calendar year where you also worked several months at full salary, your real marginal rate is higher than the withholding assumed. A parent who earned $69,000 for half of 2026 in Ontario and collected benefits for the rest will often owe a noticeable balance the following spring. The fix is boring and effective: treat 10-15% of each EI deposit as not yours, and park it for April.

What a Leave Year Does to the Rest of Your Benefit Picture

A maternity or parental leave year is a low-income year on paper, and Canada's benefit system is income-tested almost everywhere. Three knock-on effects worth planning around:

• Canada Child Benefit rises the following July. The CCB pays up to $7,997 per child under 6 and $6,748 for ages 6-17 for the July 2025-June 2026 benefit year (rising to an announced $8,157 and $6,883 for July 2026-June 2027), with the maximum available below adjusted family net income of $37,487. A leave year that pulls your family income down can push your CCB up when the benefit year resets — money that arrives exactly when an extended leave budget is tightest.
• The GST/HST credit can switch on. The GST/HST credit is calculated from the same family net income, so a lower-income leave year can make a household newly eligible the following July.
• Your future CPP is protected — if you file for it. Low-earning years while raising a child under 7 can be dropped from your CPP retirement pension calculation under the child-rearing provisions, so an 18-month leave does not have to dent the pension you collect at 65. The provision is not automatic for past periods — you request it when you apply for CPP, so keep the dates.

The Bottom Line: Pick the Weekly Number You Can Live On

The 2026 maximums are fixed: $729/week for maternity and standard parental, $437/week for extended, both anchored to the $68,900 maximum insurable earnings. You cannot negotiate the rate — but you control everything around it. The choice that matters is not "12 months or 18 months." It is "$3,159 a month or $1,894 a month" at the cap, locked in permanently at the first payment, against a total difference of about $1,142. Families that share weeks collect up to $3,645 more at the cap. Parents who apply within 4 weeks of stopping work keep every week they earned. And a household that budgets the leave on the extended weekly number before applying never gets trapped by it.