Leave by country / Canada
Canada annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in Canada get, what happens to unused days, and what you owe when someone leaves — in plain English, whether you run a team there or work on one.
Canada guarantees at least two weeks (10 working days) of paid vacation after one year of service under every provincial and territorial employment standards act and, for federally regulated employers, the Canada Labour Code — rising to three weeks after five years federally and in most provinces. Vacation pay of at least 4% of earnings is owed, and accrued, unpaid vacation pay must be paid out when employment ends.
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What the law actually says
Canada regulates vacation by jurisdiction. Roughly nine in ten employees fall under provincial or territorial employment standards, which set a floor of two weeks of paid vacation after one year of service almost everywhere, rising to three weeks after a period of service — five years in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, three years in Quebec, and from the first year in Saskatchewan. Federally regulated employees (banks, airlines, telecoms, interprovincial transport) get two weeks after one year, three after five years and four after ten under the Canada Labour Code. Vacation pay is a percentage of earnings: 4% for two weeks, 6% for three, 8% for four.
Worth knowing: Because the entitlement is expressed as vacation pay (a percentage of earnings) as well as time off, an employee who receives vacation pay on every cheque still has the right to the time off — the two are separate obligations in every jurisdiction.
What happens to unused leave in Canada
Canadian jurisdictions require vacation to be taken within a set period after it is earned — ten months following the year of employment under the federal Code, twelve months in most provinces — so balances are not meant to roll on indefinitely. Vacation pay, however, is earned wages: whatever has been earned and not paid is owed, and unused vacation time is converted into that pay when employment ends.
When employment ends, the untaken balance must be paid. This is the rule across the European Union and Australia, and it is the sharpest contrast with the United States, where whether unused time is paid out depends entirely on which state the employee works in.
If you run a team in Canada
- Write the entitlement into every contract. At least 10 days; more is fine, less is void. Collective agreements may add to it.
- Track accrual and carryover to the day, with a record of every approval. When someone leaves, the untaken balance is money you owe, and you will need to show how you got to the number.
- Budget for the payout. Every unused day on the books is a liability at that person's current pay rate — it does not disappear at year end.
If you work in Canada
- Check your contract gives at least 10 days. Anything less is unenforceable.
- Keep your own record of approved leave. Payroll systems get changed; your notes don't.
- When you leave, untaken statutory leave must be paid out. It cannot be forfeited.
Countries with the same 10-day minimum
Calculating an employee's balance
Entitlement is the starting point; the working number is what an individual has actually accrued at a given date. Our accrual calculator converts an annual entitlement into a per-pay-period figure and a current balance.
Tracking Canada leave correctly
Because untaken leave is money the employer owes, the balance has to be provable. Spreadsheets fail at exactly the moment they matter — when someone disputes what they were owed on their last day and nobody can reconstruct the record.
For a single-country team, Leavo handles Canada accrual rules, carryover and approvals with a full audit trail. If you employ people in more than one country, statutory entitlements, carryover rules and payout obligations differ in every one — that is the case for a platform like Deel that handles multi-country employment rather than leave alone. We compare the options in our leave management software guide.
Canada annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in Canada?
10 working days is the statutory minimum in Canada, equivalent to 2 weeks on a five-day working week, under Canada Labour Code, Part III, s.184 (federal); provincial employment standards acts. Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in Canada?
Yes. Payment in lieu of untaken statutory leave is required when the employment relationship ends in Canada. During employment, statutory leave must be taken as time off and cannot be exchanged for cash.
Can an employer in Canada refuse a leave request?
An employer can usually influence when leave is taken for operational reasons, but cannot deny the entitlement itself. The right to the minimum number of days is statutory and cannot be contracted away.
Do public holidays count towards the 10-day entitlement in Canada?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 10-day statutory annual leave entitlement in Canada.
Source
Primary source: Canada Labour Code, Part III, s.184 (federal); provincial employment standards acts. Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.