Eligible business and non-profits can apply for a subsidy of up to 75% of employee wages for up to a total of 24 weeks, retroactive to March 15, 2020. 

This subsidy would be available to eligible employers that see a drop of at least 15 per cent of their revenue in March 2020 and a 30 per cent drop in subsequent months (see Eligible Periods). 

Charities and non-profits may choose whether to include or exclude government funding in their revenues for the purpose of applying the revenue reduction test.

The CRA recently added a calculator feature to its website to help organizations calculate their subsidy amount.

UPDATE: On July 27, 2020 the Government of Canada announced that the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) has been extended until December 19, 2020.

More Information

As part of its COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, the Government of Canada has put into place a temporary wage subsidy for eligible employers to prevent layoffs. 

The Temporary Wage Subsidy for Employers is a three-month measure that will allow eligible employers to reduce the amount of payroll deductions required to be remitted to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Eligible employers include non-profit organizations and registered charities who have an existing business number and payroll program account with the CRA on March 18, 2020 and who pay salary, wages, bonuses, or other remuneration to an employee.

The subsidy is to be equal to ten per cent (10%) of an employee’s salary up to a maximum of $1,375 per employee and $25,000 per employer. Organizations would immediately benefit from this support by reducing the remittance of income tax withheld on their employees’ wages. 

The subsidy is calculated manually by the employer. Once the subsidy is calculated, employers can reduce their current remittance of federal, provincial, or territorial income tax that they send to the CRA by the amount of the subsidy starting with their next remittance period scheduled after March 18, 2020.

Full details can be found here.

Work-Sharing (WS) is an Employment Insurance adjustment program designed to help eligible employers and employees avoid layoffs when there is a temporary reduction in the normal level of business activity that is beyond the control of the employer.   

Work Sharing is a three-party agreement amongst employers, employees and Service Canada, where the employees must agree to a reduced schedule of work and to share the available work over a specified period. 

The program allows employers to temporarily reduce its employee’s work schedule, by providing the employee with a portion of their reduced income. The measure provides income support to employees eligible for Employment Insurance benefits who work a temporarily reduced workweek while their employer recovers.  

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada has introduced some special temporary measures including extending the maximum duration of agreements from 38 weeks to 78 weeks, waiving the waiting period between agreements, and easing the recovery plan requirements. 

There are several criteria for eligibility, including:  

• must be experiencing a recent decline in business activity of at least 10% 
• must be experiencing a recent decline in business activity directly or indirectly related to the impact of COVID-19 
• Must be a private business, a publicly held company or a not-for-profit organization 

More information is outlined in our COVID-19 Work Sharing Program Fact Sheet (PDF).