Working While on EI Calculator 2026: Your Exact Benefit Cut per $100 Earned + the 90% Cap

The rule is simpler than the Service Canada page makes it look. For every dollar you earn while collecting EI in 2026, you lose exactly 50 cents of benefits — until your gross weekly earnings reach 90% of the weekly pay your claim was built on. Above that line, every additional dollar earned removes a full dollar of EI. And in any week you work a full week, your EI for that week is $0 no matter what the job paid. That is the entire Working While on Claim system, and once you see the three numbers that drive it, you can calculate your exact payment for any week — which is what this page walks through, step by step, with the full deduction table.

The 2026 Formula — Your Exact Number in 3 Steps

You need three inputs: the weekly earnings your claim was set on, your weekly EI benefit rate, and your gross part-time earnings for the week. Here is the calculation Service Canada runs:

Step 1: Find your weekly benefit rate

EI pays 55% of your average weekly insurable earnings, calculated from your best weeks (between 14 and 22 of them, depending on your regional unemployment rate). For 2026, insurable earnings are capped at $68,900 per year — $1,325 per week — so the maximum possible benefit is $729 per week. If you earned $1,000 a week before the layoff, your rate is $550. If you earned $1,325 or more, your rate is $729.

Step 2: Deduct 50 cents per dollar earned

Take your gross weekly earnings from the part-time work — before tax, before any deductions — and divide by two. That amount comes off your EI payment. Earn $400 in a week and your EI cheque drops by $200. Earn $100 and it drops by $50. You always come out ahead in this zone: each $100 of work adds $50 of total income.

Step 3: Check the 90% cap

The 50-cent treatment only applies up to 90% of the weekly earnings your claim was set on — roughly four and a half days of work, in ESDC's framing. Every dollar earned above that cap is deducted from your EI dollar-for-dollar. For the $1,000-a-week earner, the cap is $900. For a maximum claimant at the $1,325 insurable ceiling, it is about $1,193.

Worked Example: A $1,000-a-Week Earner Takes a $400 Part-Time Job

A Mississauga warehouse supervisor is laid off in March 2026. Her claim is set on $1,000 of weekly insurable earnings, so her EI rate is $550 per week. In May she picks up a part-time merchandising job paying $400 a week, gross.

• Deduction: $400 ÷ 2 = $200
• EI payable: $550 − $200 = $350
• Total weekly income: $400 wages + $350 EI = $750 — versus $550 on EI alone

She is $200 a week better off working, the deduction is automatic once she declares the earnings, and her claim continues. That is the system working as designed. The math only turns against her if the job creeps past the $900 cap — which is where the table below comes in.

The Full 2026 Deduction Table: EI Payment by Part-Time Earnings

Here is the complete picture for the same $1,000-a-week claimant ($550 EI rate, $900 cap). Find the row closest to your own gross weekly earnings and scale — the shape is identical at every income level:

Look at the last column between $900 and $1,000: it does not move. This is the part most people miss. Between the 90% cap and the point where EI runs out, your total income flatlines at your old weekly pay — every extra dollar you earn is matched by a dollar of EI clawed back. Working Saturday for $100 in that zone earns you exactly nothing. Income only starts growing again once you out-earn the claim entirely.

Where the cap lands at your income level

The same geometry repeats at every earnings level, because the benefit rate is always 55% and the cap is always 90%. A useful consequence: your EI hits $0 at almost exactly your old weekly pay, whatever that pay was.

The Two Edge Rules That Override the Formula

The full-week rule

Work a full week and you are not eligible for any EI that week, regardless of the amount you earn. A full week at minimum wage pays you $0 in EI; four and a half days at a high rate can still leave a partial benefit. The compensating rule, straight from ESDC: a full week of work does not reduce the total number of weeks payable on your claim. The week is banked, and your remaining entitlement (14 to 45 weeks for regular benefits in 2026, set by your insurable hours and regional unemployment rate when you filed) is preserved. The limit on this banking is your benefit period itself, which has a fixed end date — weeks pushed past that date are simply lost.

The earnings-above-the-cap rule

Between 90% and 100% of your old weekly pay, the dollar-for-dollar deduction means added hours produce zero added income. If a recruiter offers you 4 days a week at your old rate, that schedule almost certainly parks you on the flatline. The decision lever: either keep the job under the cap (where each $100 still nets you $50), or push to a full week at higher total pay and bank the EI week instead. The worst spot on the entire curve is the one just past the cap.

It Applies to Every EI Benefit Type — Including Maternity and Sickness

Working While on Claim is not just for regular benefits. ESDC confirms you qualify if you receive any type of EI benefits — regular, sickness, maternity, or parental. The government's own published example is a sickness claimant who returned part-time on a doctor's note, kept her $260 of weekly wages, and still received $338 of her $468 benefit. The same 50-cent arithmetic applied. The one carve-out: employees receiving paid sick leave or wage-loss indemnity from an employer registered in the EI Premium Reduction Program have their earnings deducted under different rules. If you are stacking part-time earnings on top of a parental or sickness claim, the sequencing of weeks matters more than the formula — our guide to maximizing EI benefits walks through how claim timing and benefit type interact.

How to Report — and the Mistake That Triggers Repayment Letters

There is no application for Working While on Claim. The earnings rules apply automatically; your only obligation is the report you file every two weeks. Three reporting rules cause nearly all of the damage we see:

• Report gross, not net. Declare earnings before tax, EI, and CPP deductions come off. Declaring your take-home amount under-reports your earnings and builds an overpayment week by week.
• Report the week worked, not the week paid. Earnings belong on the report covering the days you actually worked, even if the paycheque arrives two weeks later. Service Canada cross-checks declarations against employer payroll records, and mismatches surface eventually.
• Keep filing even in full-work weeks. A full week of work means $0 EI for that week, not the end of your claim. Claimants who stop reporting because they assume the claim is dead forfeit weeks they were still entitled to.

Get any of these wrong and the consequence is the same: an overpayment you must repay, sometimes a year later, after the money is long spent. Declare accurately and the system needs nothing else from you.

Three Situations Worth Modelling Before You Take the Shifts

1. Low-income parents: the 80% family supplement

If your net family income is $25,921 or less, you have children, and you or your spouse receives the Canada Child Benefit, the EI family supplement can lift your benefit rate from 55% to as much as 80% of average insurable earnings. Only one spouse can receive it, and it generally pays to put it on the lower benefit rate. A part-time job's earnings still get the 50-cent treatment, but the higher base rate changes where working stops paying. Families in this bracket should also confirm what the 2026 Canada Child Benefit amounts add per child, since CCB is tax-free and unaffected by weekly EI earnings deductions.

2. Laid off in your early 60s: EI first, pensions second

EI has no upper age cut-off, and the maximum $729 weekly benefit is substantially more than most pension income — the average new CPP retirement pension at 65 is $925.35 a month as of January 2026 (about $213 a week). A layoff at 62 or 63 is usually an EI claim first and a pension decision second, not the reverse. Before starting CPP early to bridge the gap, compare the 2026 CPP payment amounts by starting age, and if you are within sight of 65, the 2026 OAS payment amounts as well. For lower-income seniors, remember that EI benefits are taxable income and count in the income test for the Guaranteed Income Supplement — the 2026 GIS income thresholds show exactly where a year of EI plus part-time earnings can land you.

3. The offer that sits right at the cap

A Toronto claimant with a $550 EI rate offered $920 a week of part-time work is being offered $20 more than her $900 cap — and the table above shows her total income is $1,000 whether she earns $900, $950, or $1,000. The move is to negotiate the schedule: fewer hours under the cap, or a genuine full week at full pay. A lower-earnings year has a second-order upside worth checking too — benefits tied to family net income, like the GST/HST credit, are reassessed on the lower income and can quietly add several hundred dollars the following year.

The Bottom Line: Know Your Cap Before You Accept the Hours

Working while on EI in 2026 is genuinely worth it in the zone the system was designed for: below 90% of your old weekly pay, every $100 earned leaves you $50 ahead, on top of preserving your skills and your hiring story. The trap is narrow and specific — the flatline between the cap and your old wage, where added hours add nothing, and the full-week rule, which zeroes a week of EI while banking it for later. Three numbers tell you everything: your benefit rate (55% of old pay, max $729), your cap (90% of old pay), and your zero point (roughly 100% of old pay). Run any job offer against those three numbers before you say yes.