How to calculate your premium and insurable earnings

Write ‘0’ (zero) as the insurable earnings for any NAICS code that has zero earnings for this reporting period. Please contact us if your business has closed or stopped employing people.

• anyone you employ in your business, including family, full-time, part-time, seasonal or temporary employees, certain domestic employees, unregistered individuals engaged in construction work, students, apprentices, learners and training participants
• yourself – if you're an independent operator, sole proprietor, partner or executive officer in the construction industry. Learn more about mandatory coverage in construction for information on exceptions.
• please see our policy on Workers and Independent Operators for details and exceptions on who must be insured

We set an annual maximum for insurable earnings based on the average industrial wage (AIW) for Ontario. For 2024, the annual insurable earnings maximum is $112,500.

Once an individual’s earnings reach the annual maximum, you don't need to report the earnings that exceed the maximum.

• any taxable benefits included in box 14 of the T4 such as wages, annual salary or payments for piece work
• room and board that are part of earnings
• bonuses and commissions
• merchandise awards
• profit-sharing
• overtime pay
• sick pay
• vacation pay
• severance pay if an Employment Insurance (EI) Record of Employment has not been issued

Review appendix I of our Determining insurable earnings policy for the complete list of earnings to include. Non-insurable earnings, such as top ups to EI maternity benefits or sick pay credits used for early retirement, are not part of your insurable payroll and should be excluded.

Some examples of non-insurable earnings include:

• maternity benefits paid in addition to EI benefits
• sick pay credits used by an individual who is off work on early retirement and is kept on the payroll until the time of retirement
• retiring allowance paid over a series of months after  employment has ended
• severance pay if an EI Record of Employment is issued to an individual
• earnings of Ontario-based an employee’s temporarily out of the province that are reported to other Canadian workers' compensation boards

Review appendix II of our Determining insurable earnings policy for a comprehensive list of non-insurable earnings.

If you're a business in the construction industry, you can learn more about insurable gross earnings and mandatory coverage in the construction industry. 

Earnings are considered either direct or common.

Direct earnings can be assigned to a NAICS code directly from records that clearly show the earnings by business activity.

Common earnings are for work completed to support business activities in two or more NAICS codes, for example human resources, accounting, administrative staff, people covered by optional insurance, and sole proprietors, partners of a partnership or executive officers of a corporation in the construction industry. If common work is performed, you must include a portion of the common earnings with each NAICS code when calculating premiums as follows:

1. Determine the direct earnings for each NAICS code.
2. Total the direct earnings from all NAICS code.
3. Determine the total common earnings.
4. Divide direct earnings for each NAICS code by the total direct earnings for all NAICS codes. This results in the proportion of common earnings to use for each NAICS codes. Then multiply each amount by 100 to get the percentage.
5. Multiply the percentage for each NAICS code by the total common earnings. This gives the amount of common earnings to assign to each NAICS code description.
6. Add the common earnings amount plus direct earnings for each NAICS code.

Review the following example:

An employer manages four different business activities; therefore, the employer has four different NAICS codes with a total direct earnings amount of $500,000. There are common earnings of $48,000. The common earnings must be pro-rated over the direct insurable earnings in each NAICS code.

Step 1: The business determines the amount of direct earnings and the percentage of total direct earnings from all people they're responsible for insuring for each NAICS code.

Step 2: Apply the percentage of total direct earnings to the common earnings to determine the proportion of common earnings to be assigned to each NAICS code.

Step 3: Add the direct insurable earnings and the pro-rated common earnings for each NAICS code.