CPP and EI max-out calculator (2026)

Paid every two weeks in 2026, EI reaches its $68,900 maximum on paycheque 18 in August, the CPP base and additional portions reach their maximum on paycheque 20 in September, and CPP2 reaches its maximum on paycheque 23 in November. Each contribution stops from the paycheque after its cap, at $63 of EI, $221 of CPP, and $154 of CPP2 per paycheque while it applied. Those amounts do not add up to one single increase, because CPP2 is not deducted from the first paycheque at all: it starts only once earnings pass $74,600. The first paycheque carries $284 of payroll contributions and the last carries $0, so the last paycheque is $284 higher than the first from payroll caps alone. The paycheque on which a cap is reached still carries a partial contribution, so the full stop starts with the following paycheque.

CPP and EI are annual caps, not a percentage taken forever. Your employer withholds them on each paycheque until your pay to date reaches the 2026 maximum for that contribution, then stops withholding that contribution for the rest of the year. Because the EI, CPP, and CPP2 maximums are different amounts, they stop on different paycheques, so your take-home pay steps up more than once during the year. Income tax withholding does not stop: only the capped payroll contribution stops, so the increase is the contribution amount, not the whole deduction.

Yes, because there are fewer, larger paycheques. On the same $100,000 salary paid monthly in 2026, EI and the CPP base portion both reach their maximums on paycheque 9 in September, and CPP2 reaches its maximum on paycheque 11 in November. The first monthly paycheque carries $614 of payroll contributions and the last carries $0, so the last paycheque is $614 higher than the first. The annual total is the same, $5,770: monthly pay just reaches the caps in fewer steps, so each step is larger.

Then no cap is reached. On a $60,000 salary paid every two weeks, earnings never reach the $68,900 EI maximum or the $74,600 CPP maximum in 2026, so CPP and EI come off every paycheque in the same amount all year. Total payroll contributions for the year are $4,340, and there is no late-year increase from a cap. The paycheque still varies if your pay varies, but the payroll deductions do not stop.

The thresholds are the same, but the rates and the extra contribution differ. On a $100,000 salary paid every two weeks in Quebec in 2026, EI reaches its maximum on paycheque 18 in August at $50 per paycheque, QPP reaches its maximum on paycheque 20 in September at $234, and QPP2 on paycheque 23 in November at $154 per paycheque while it applied. The first paycheque carries $300 of payroll contributions and the last carries $17 (QPIP only, which never reaches its $103,000 ceiling at $100,000), so the last paycheque is $284 higher than the first. At $120,000, QPIP reaches the ceiling on paycheque 23 in November, at $20 per paycheque, and the last paycheque is $362 higher than the first, with no payroll contributions left on it.

The caps arrive earlier than this calculator shows. This calculator assumes your salary is paid evenly across the year, so a raise or a bonus paid partway through the year adds earnings faster and brings every remaining cap forward, sometimes into the same pay period as the bonus. The annual maximums do not change, so the total CPP and EI for the year stays the same; only the timing moves. Enter your expected annual total to see the timing if the raise or bonus had been spread evenly, and treat a mid-year lump sum as pulling the caps earlier.

A new employer generally starts withholding CPP and EI from the beginning, as if no contributions had been made yet, so the caps arrive later than this calculator shows and the same contributions may be withheld twice across the two jobs. Any amount withheld above the annual maximum is credited when you file your tax return, so the overpayment comes back at filing time rather than in a later paycheque. This calculator assumes one employer for the whole year.