Severance pay calculator for Canada (2026): Ontario, BC, Alberta and every province and territory

This severance pay calculator works out the statutory minimum you're owed when your job ends anywhere in Canada: the notice of termination or termination pay your service earns, the vacation pay still owing, statutory severance pay where your statute has one, up to 26 weeks in Ontario, and the date your final pay is due. Pick Ontario, BC, Alberta or any other province, territory or the federal rules, enter your dates and your regular pay, and it shows every step in your browser and keeps nothing, while the severance pay guide explains each entitlement section by section.

Updated October 20, 2026 · Figures verified against the statutes of each jurisdiction · see all figures and their sources · what's new

Quick answers

How is Ontario severance pay calculated?

Pick Ontario and the calculator reads your termination pay off the s. 57 schedule, from 1 week up to 8 weeks, then asks the payroll and group question. If your employer meets it and you have 5 years of service, it adds 1 week of regular wages for each year, leftover months included, up to 26 weeks. The Ontario page sets out both tests.

Is there a severance pay calculator for BC, Alberta and Quebec?

Yes, each under its own statute. None of the three has a separate severance pay, so there the result is the termination pay your service earns plus vacation pay, and the severance line reads zero. BC calls that money compensation for length of service and Quebec a compensatory indemnity; the card shows it as pay in lieu of notice, with a note that this is what people there call severance.

What the calculator needs

Five things from your own records. If you're not sure where one comes from, the severance pay guide walks through each of them.

• Where you work. The province or territory, or the federal rules if your employer is a bank, an airline, a railway, a telecom, an interprovincial trucking company or another federally regulated workplace.
• Your first and last day. Length of service sets the weeks of notice, and in Ontario and federally it also sets severance pay. If you worked through written notice, your last day is the end of that notice.
• Your regular pay before deductions, per hour, per week or per year, and the hours in your regular work week. Regular pay only: no overtime, bonuses or tips.
• How the job ended. Your employer let you go without alleging cause, your employer alleges just cause or wilful misconduct, you quit, a fixed-term contract ended on its date, or a temporary layoff went past the limit, which adds two questions: the first day of your layoff and whether your job has ended. Add the weeks of written working notice you were given and, if others were let go in the same period, how many (optional). In Ontario it asks one more question, the payroll and group test that decides whether statutory severance applies.
• Vacation pay. The wages you've earned since vacation pay was last paid out, and any vacation pay already paid for that period. Leave the rate blank and the calculator uses the schedule rate for your length of service.

If you'd rather start from your own jurisdiction, the calculator is preset on each page: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and federally regulated workplaces.

What it gives back

The weeks of notice your service earns under that statute and the pay in lieu of any notice you didn't work; statutory severance pay where the statute has one, which is Ontario and federally regulated workplaces only, with the qualifying test spelled out; the vacation pay owing; the total statutory minimum; and the deadline for your final pay. Every line shows its arithmetic. Where the statute has no separate severance pay, it says so and shows zero rather than a blank, because in most of Canada what people call severance is the termination pay the calculator has already counted.

It also tells you what doesn't change the minimum. Quitting removes notice but not the vacation pay you've earned. A just cause allegation removes notice only if it meets the standard in the statute, which is a higher bar than an employer being unhappy with you. And it reminds you that severance, pay in lieu and vacation pay are normally allocated to the weeks after your last day and push back the start of Employment Insurance (EI): severance pay and EI explains the delay and the temporary measure that suspends it.

How it does the math

Notice is a lookup: your completed years of service against the schedule of your statute, and below the qualifying service there's no notice yet. Pay in lieu is your regular weekly wage times the weeks of notice you didn't work, and the weekly wage is your regular week, not your overtime. Ontario and federal severance each follow their own formula, applied as the statute writes it: Ontario counts partial years of service for severance but not for notice. Vacation pay is the schedule percentage of the wages earned since the last payout, minus what was already paid. The full walkthrough, with a worked example, is in the guide: how the calculator does the math.

The floor is a floor. A lawyer may recover more under the common law of reasonable notice or under your contract, and the calculator never estimates that. Common law notice vs statutory minimums says what it leaves out and when a package is worth a second opinion.

How to use it for your situation

The same calculator covers several ways a job ends, and in each one a single input decides most of the result. These are the most common.

You were let go without notice. Pick the option where your employer let you go without alleging cause, and enter zero weeks of working notice. It returns the weeks of notice your service earns, pay in lieu for all of them, the vacation pay owing and the date your final pay is due. If you worked part of the notice, enter those weeks and only the rest is paid out. It doesn't estimate common law notice, which a court can set well above the statute: common law notice vs statutory minimums.

You quit. Pick the option for quitting. Notice drops out, but the vacation pay you've earned and the final pay deadline still apply. Enter your wages since the last vacation payout, because that line is most of what's left. It doesn't cover the other side. In several jurisdictions you owe your employer notice when you leave, which is explained in how much notice you owe when you quit.

Your employer says it was for cause. Pick the option where your employer alleges just cause or wilful misconduct. The result keeps the vacation pay, which is owed however the job ended, and reminds you that the allegation removes notice only if it meets the standard in the statute. Then run it again as a dismissal without cause: the gap between the two totals is what the allegation puts at stake. It can't decide whether the allegation meets that standard. The test is in fired for cause: what you're still owed.

A temporary layoff turned permanent. Pick the option for a layoff that went past the limit. It asks two more questions: the first day of your layoff and whether your job has ended. Then it works out notice, pay in lieu and vacation pay for your service. It won't decide whether your layoff has become a termination under your statute. The limits and how they're counted are in temporary layoff rules.

You're federally regulated. If you work for a bank, an airline, a railway, a telecom or an interprovincial trucking company, pick the federal rules, not your province. The result then adds severance pay on top of notice: from 12 months of continuous employment, the greater of 2 days of wages for each completed year and 5 days, with no ceiling. It doesn't estimate what a federal unjust dismissal complaint could recover above the minimum. The federal rules are on severance pay for federally regulated workplaces.