HR glossary · Leave, health and benefits

Top-up plan (SUB plan)

A SUB plan is an employer top-up of EI benefits, set up under Service Canada rules so the top-up doesn't reduce the employee's EI payments.

Also called: supplemental unemployment benefit plan, SUB plan, EI top-up, maternity top-up

What top-up plan (SUB plan) means

A supplemental unemployment benefit plan, or SUB plan, is an arrangement where the employer adds money to the Employment Insurance (EI) benefits an employee receives while off work. It is often used for maternity and parental leave, and can also be used for other EI benefits.

The reason for a formal plan is simple. EI can treat money an employer pays during a benefit period as earnings, which can reduce the EI payment. A plan set up to meet Service Canada's requirements lets the employer's top-up sit on top of EI instead of replacing part of it.

Nothing in employment standards law requires a top-up. It is a benefit you choose to offer, often to attract or keep staff. If you offer it, set it up properly before the first employee uses it.

How it works

Decide what you want to offer: which leaves the plan covers, what percentage of regular pay the top-up brings the employee to, how many weeks it lasts, and who qualifies, for example employees with at least a year of service. Write it down as a policy so every employee is treated the same way.

Set the plan up under Service Canada's requirements before you pay anything under it. The rules cover how the plan is documented, the maximum combined income, and what the payments can and cannot be tied to. You register the plan with Service Canada's SUB program, and Service Canada's acknowledgement of the registration must arrive before the plan's start date. Until the plan is registered, any top-up you pay is treated as earnings and may be deducted from the employee's EI benefits. Once a registered plan meets all the requirements, its payments are not treated as earnings and are not deducted from EI. Service Canada's SUB plan page explains the current requirements.

Many employers attach a return-to-work condition: if the employee does not come back for a set period after the leave, they repay some or all of the top-up. If you want one, put it in the policy and have the employee sign an agreement before the leave starts.

Handle payroll carefully. Top-up payments go through payroll with the appropriate deductions: payments from a plan registered with Service Canada are still subject to income tax and to CPP (or QPP) contributions. For the Record of Employment, when you make employer-paid maternity, parental, sick or compassionate care payments, the ROE is completed after those payments end, not on the employee's last day of work.

Common mistakes: paying a top-up before the plan is set up, promising a percentage without checking how it interacts with EI, and forgetting the plan when issuing the ROE.

Is it the same in every province?

SUB plans are part of the federal EI program, so the same requirements apply across Canada. Quebec handles maternity and parental benefits differently, so a Quebec employer topping up those benefits should check the provincial program's rules as well.

Example: A parental top-up at a Charlottetown software company

Free tools and guides for this

• Employment standards: Record of Employment deadlines
• Staffkin HR Suite

Questions about top-up plan (SUB plan)

Related terms

Official sources

• Service Canada, Supplemental Unemployment Benefit Program

General information for Canadian employers, not legal advice. Rules differ by province and territory and change over time, so check with your provincial employment standards office (or the federal Labour Program if you are federally regulated) before you rely on it. See employment standards by province.

Checked against official sources on 5 November 2026.