Employer of Record in Canada: 21 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Canada: key facts

Canadian employment law splits three ways — federal, provincial and (for Quebec) civil-code — so the figures below give the federal baseline plus the provincial range, naming Ontario, BC, Quebec and Alberta wherever they diverge.

Minimum wage

The federal rate applies only to federally regulated employers, and only where it exceeds the applicable province’s own rate.

Employer contributions

Quebec employers pay QPP/QPIP instead of CPP/EI; Ontario’s EHT is judged on total Ontario payroll, not one hire, which is why it’s typical for an EOR’s client book rather than a single employee.

Working hours and overtime

Annual leave and public holidays

Probation

• Most provinces have no separate statutory “probation” category (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• Ontario comes closest: employees with under 3 months of service are exempt from the ESA’s termination notice and pay requirements — a de facto probation window (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• Employers commonly layer a contractual probationary period of 3–6 months on top of that statutory floor: termination is simpler and cheaper during it, but still subject to any applicable notice minimum once the exemption window has passed (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30).

Notice and severance

Source: ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30.

• That ESA table is a floor only: Canadian common law, outside Quebec’s civil code, requires “reasonable notice” that’s far longer — up to roughly 24 months for senior, long-service employees — unless a validly drafted contract limits it (achkarlaw.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• Statutory severance pay (separate from notice) applies in Ontario only at 5+ years’ service and CAD 2.5 million+ employer payroll, or 50+ employees severed within 6 months: 1 week per year, capped at 26 weeks (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• Quebec has its own notice/severance regime under the Civil Code.

13th salary and bonuses

• No jurisdiction in Canada mandates a 13th-month payment or any other statutory annual bonus (canada.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• Any bonus, holiday gift or profit-share is a matter of contract, not law — an EOR quote that lists a “13th salary” line for Canada describes a market-standard perk, not a compliance obligation, and it’s negotiable (canada.ca, checked 2026-09-30).

Mandatory benefits

• Every province runs universal public healthcare funded through general taxation or an employer health tax, not a per-employee premium.
• Employers must carry workers’-compensation insurance — WSIB in Ontario, WCB elsewhere — at industry-rated premiums; Ontario’s average premium falls to CAD 1.23 per CAD 100 of insurable payroll from 2026-11-01, down from CAD 1.25 (wsib.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• CPP/QPP and EI/QPIP contributions are mandatory too (see Employer contributions above).
• There’s no legally mandated private health, dental or life insurance, though most employers, and most EOR packages, offer it anyway.

Work permits

• Most non-Canadian, non-permanent-resident hires need a work permit tied to a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) obtained by the actual hiring employer, or an LMIA-exempt permit such as a CUSMA/intra-company transfer.
• As of Service Canada guidance effective 2026-09-18, an Employer of Record does not qualify as the LMIA-sponsoring employer: “employer” is the entity that hires, directs and pays the worker, and staffing agencies and EORs are explicitly excluded (Fragomen, checked 2026-09-30).
• This closes the LMIA route for EOR-hired foreign nationals; the client’s own entity, or the worker via an LMIA-exempt category, must be the sponsor.
• An EOR can still run payroll for someone who already holds valid status.

Currency and payroll

• Payroll runs in Canadian dollars (CAD); as of 2026-09-29 the Bank of Canada’s daily rate was 1 USD = 1.4188 CAD (bankofcanada.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• There’s no single statutory pay frequency nationally or in Ontario — employers must set a regular pay period and pay day and issue a wage statement each time (ESA s.11); biweekly or semi-monthly is common market practice (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• Quebec requires pay at least every 16 days (monthly allowed for some managerial staff) — stricter than Ontario, worth confirming separately.

Is Employer of Record legal in Canada?

Allowed, with limits. No single federal law bans employee leasing or EOR arrangements, and hiring a Canadian employee through an EOR instead of opening your own entity is common and broadly legal. The constraints are provincial and, as of this year, federal-immigration:

• Ontario temporary help agencies have needed a licence since 2024-07-01 (ESA Part XVIII.1); clients are barred from knowingly engaging an unlicensed one, and licensing brings co-employment-style recordkeeping obligations for both agency and client (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• British Columbia requires a similar licence for employment agencies that charge a fee to place workers, plus a separate recruiter licence for hiring temporary foreign workers (gov.bc.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• The LMIA rule. Since 2026-09-18, Service Canada excludes EORs from being the LMIA-sponsoring employer (see Work permits above) — a client hiring a foreign national on a new work permit needs its own Canadian entity or an LMIA-exempt route.
• Common-law reasonable notice. Outside Quebec, courts can require far more termination notice than the statutory minimum unless the EOR’s contract has a validly drafted, enforceable termination clause (see Notice and severance above).

For the client, three risks follow directly: an unlicensed Ontario agency puts the client itself in breach, separately from the agency’s own liability; a new foreign hire can’t get an LMIA permit through an EOR anymore; and an unenforceable termination clause can turn a routine dismissal into a common-law notice claim, a cost that can flow back to whichever party asked for the termination.

Who actually employs your hire in Canada

Vendors describe their entity model globally (“130+ owned entities,” “hybrid network”) far more often than they confirm it for Canada specifically. Here’s what each vendor’s own Canada-facing page — or a public registry — actually says:

Eleven of these 21 don’t say whether Canada is served by their own entity or a partner’s — including Oyster, Rippling and Safeguard Global, three of the more prominent names in the category. That matters because it decides who’s actually on the hook if payroll, tax filings or a termination go wrong. Before signing, ask the vendor directly: “Is the entity that will employ my hire in Canada wholly owned by you, and can you name it?” A vendor that answers with a country name and, ideally, a corporate registry record is a different risk profile from one that repeats its global “owned + partner network” line.

How to choose an EOR in Canada

Need the clearest evidence of who’s actually employing your hire? Pebl’s Canadian entity turns up under its former name, Velocity Global, in the federal Corporations Canada registry, and Boundless holds an Ontario Personnel Placement Agency licence (AP-2101873) — both a step beyond a vendor’s own wording. Deel and Remote also name Canada specifically rather than citing a global entity count, Deel in its Canada blog post and Remote down to the province (British Columbia).

Weighing price against fee transparency? Skuad discloses the lowest Canada-specific number, $199/month. Rivermate’s €399–499/month is higher but its Canada FAQ states there are no onboarding, offboarding, setup or termination fees beyond the monthly rate and a refundable deposit. Borderless AI publishes a Canada-specific $579/month price with no setup fee and, unusually, no security deposit at all, against an industry norm it cites of $7,000–$20,000 — worth it if avoiding a deposit matters more than the lowest headline price.

Need to bring in a foreign national on a new work permit? None of the vendors above can be the LMIA-sponsoring employer for that hire as of 2026-09-18. That’s true regardless of which one you pick — you’ll need your own Canadian entity or an LMIA-exempt route for that specific hire.

What it costs to employ someone in Canada through an EOR

The EOR, not the client, is the legal employer, and it runs payroll for many clients, so every provincial small-employer exemption is out of reach: Ontario’s and BC’s health taxes apply at the top 1.95% rate, and Quebec’s Health Services Fund at its top 4.26% (ontario.ca, checked 2026-09-30). The figures cover the four largest provinces.

CPP is 5.95% on earnings between the CAD 3,500 basic exemption and the CAD 74,600 YMPE; CPP2 is 4% on the slice between CAD 74,600 and the CAD 85,000 YAMPE; EI is 2.28% (1.4x the employee rate) up to CAD 68,900 of insurable earnings (canadianmoneyhelp.ca, checked 2026-09-30). Not included: WSIB workplace-injury premiums, which are industry-classification-rated (2026 average CAD 1.23 per CAD 100 of payroll) rather than a flat percentage, so there’s no single defensible per-employee figure without picking an arbitrary industry (wsib.ca, checked 2026-09-30).

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Published Canada-specific numbers in our data range from $199/month (Skuad’s discounted rate) to CA$9,876/year — CA$823/month — at Deel; G-P quotes a flat USD 599/month with no minimum contract length, Justworks a flat $599/month with no setup fees, Borderless AI $579/month with no deposit, and Rivermate €399–499/month plus a refundable deposit with no other fees. Boundless and Pebl both state no setup fees globally but publish no Canada-specific price. Most other vendors publish only a global list price ($99–$699/month) or none at all, quote-based — Safeguard Global publishes no price for any product or country.

Hidden costs, where actually published: Rivermate states no onboarding, offboarding, setup or termination fee beyond its monthly rate, but does charge a refundable deposit (amount not stated). Borderless AI states no setup fee and, unusually, no security deposit at all — “$0” against an industry norm it cites of $7,000–$20,000. Boundless states no setup fees and no minimum commitment; Pebl states no setup or offboarding fees but doesn’t address a minimum term; and G-P states no minimum contract length — none of the three gives a Canada-specific price to go with it. No other vendor in this set discloses a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee specifically for Canada — where the field is blank in the table above, treat it as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Cheaper and closer to the real relationship if the person sets their own hours and tools and can serve other clients. See how to pay contractors in Canada and our hiring guide for the classification tests (CRA’s control/tools/subcontracting factors outside Quebec, the Civil Code’s subordination test inside it).
• Your own Canadian entity. The only route if the hire needs a new LMIA-based work permit, since 2026-09-18 an EOR can’t be the sponsor.
• A PEO. Co-employment alongside an entity you already have, rather than the EOR standing in as the sole legal employer. Papaya Global runs a separate Canadian PEO product alongside its EOR; see our PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO for how the liability split differs.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — CPP2’s upper threshold (YAMPE) rises to CAD 85,000; base YMPE rises to CAD 74,600. Combined max employer CPP+CPP2 per employee: CAD 4,646.45.
• 2026-01-01 — EI maximum insurable earnings rises to CAD 68,900; max employer EI contribution CAD 1,572.30.
• 2026-01-01 — Quebec’s QPIP employer premium drops about 8% to 0.602%; QPP runs 6.30% on earnings from CAD 3,500 to 74,600 plus 4% QPP2 up to CAD 85,000, the same ceilings as CPP.
• 2026-01-01 — Manitoba’s payroll-tax exemption threshold rises to CAD 2.5 million, reduced-rate ceiling to CAD 5 million.
• 2026-04-01 — Federal minimum wage rises to CAD 18.15/hour, from CAD 17.75.
• 2026-05-01 — Quebec’s general minimum wage rises to CAD 16.60/hour.
• 2026-06-01 — BC’s general minimum wage rises to CAD 18.25/hour.
• 2026-09-18 — Service Canada excludes staffing agencies and EORs from sponsoring LMIA-based work permits; the entity that actually hires, directs and pays the worker must hold the LMIA.
• 2026-10-01 — Ontario’s general minimum wage rises to CAD 17.95/hour, from CAD 17.60.
• 2026-11-01 — Ontario’s average WSIB employer premium falls to CAD 1.23 per CAD 100 of insurable payroll, from CAD 1.25.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Skuad states the federal minimum wage as $17.30/hour on its Canada page; the actual federal rate is CAD 18.15/hour as of 2026-04-01 (canada.ca, checked 2026-09-30).
• Oyster and RemoFirst both state the federal minimum wage as $17.75/hour, the rate that took effect 2025-04-01 — one step behind the current CAD 18.15/hour. Borderless AI’s Canada page is the one vendor figure in our data that already matches the current rate.
• Deel shows a global EOR list price of $599/month on its pricing page, but its own Canada blog post states CA$9,876/year — about CA$823/month — for a Canada hire specifically. The two aren’t the same number, and we couldn’t confirm from Deel’s public pages what accounts for the gap; we used the Canada-specific figure above.

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-09-30 against government sources (canada.ca, ontario.ca, the Bank of Canada) and, for the LMIA rule, Fragomen’s legal alert alongside secondary immigration-law reporting. Vendor entity claims were checked against a public corporate registry where one could confirm them — Pebl’s Canadian entity is on record with Corporations Canada — and against the vendor’s own Canada-facing page otherwise; where a vendor states only a global entity model, we recorded Canada as not disclosed rather than assuming. The ranking above puts confirmed, Canada-specific own entities first. Nobody pays for placement on this page.