What benefits can servers get in Canada? (dental, EI, workers benefit)

One server, five checks

Say Alex is single, 28, has no kids, works full time on the floor, and had adjusted net income of $30,000 in 2025, wages plus tips (illustrative). The restaurant offers no dental or drug plan.

1. 1File a tax return every spring, even if the year was slow. The CWB, the groceries benefit and the CDCP income test all run off it.
2. 2Report every tip. The CRA taxes all tips, and your full income is what these programs look at.
3. 3Check how your tips are paid. If your employer controls them, they count toward EI and CPP. If they come straight from the customer, they don’t, unless you choose to pay CPP on them.

Not tax or legal advice. Alex and the income are made up. Amounts change every year; check each program’s current numbers on canada.ca.

Plain English

Dental: the Canadian Dental Care Plan

If your job has no dental coverage, the CDCP is built for your situation. Canada.ca lists four requirements, and you have to meet all of them: you can’t have access to private dental insurance, including a health spending account that covers dental; you and your spouse or partner must have filed your tax returns in Canada; your adjusted family net income must be less than $90,000; and you must be Canadian residents for tax purposes. Coverage through a government social program doesn’t rule you out.

Money at tax time

Canada Workers Benefit. A refundable tax credit for people who are working and earning a low income. For the 2025 tax year the basic amount is up to $1,633 for a single person and up to $2,813 for a family. For a single person it starts shrinking above $26,855 of adjusted net income and ends above $37,742; for a family, $30,639 and $49,393. You need working income, you must be 19 or older on December 31 (or live with a spouse, partner or child), and you can’t claim it if you were a full-time student for more than 13 weeks of the year without an eligible dependant. You claim it on your tax return.

Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit. This replaced the GST/HST credit in July 2026. It’s a tax-free quarterly payment for people with low and modest incomes. For July 2026 to June 2027 it’s up to $679 for a single person and $890 for a couple, plus $234 per child under 19, based on your 2025 return. You don’t apply separately; you file your return.

Canada Child Benefit. If you have kids under 18, the CCB is a tax-free monthly payment, which the CRA pays to eligible families; canada.ca explains how to apply.

EI: losing hours, getting sick, and your tips

Regular benefits are for a job lost through no fault of your own. You need between 420 and 700 hours of insurable employment in your qualifying period, usually the 52 weeks before your claim, depending on the unemployment rate where you live. The benefit is up to 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings, to a maximum of $729 a week, for 14 to 45 weeks.

Sickness benefits pay up to 26 weeks if you can’t work for medical reasons. You need 600 insured hours in the 52 weeks before your claim, your regular weekly earnings must have dropped by more than 40% for at least a week, and you need a medical certificate.

How tips fit in. The CRA splits tips into two kinds. Controlled tips are ones your employer holds or divides: a mandatory service charge, a tip-share formula the employer sets, or tips that pass through the employer’s bank account. They’re part of your pay, and EI premiums and CPP contributions come off them. Direct tips come from the customer to you: cash on the table, a pool the staff decide on themselves, card tips paid out to you in cash. The CRA says direct tips are not subject to CPP contributions or EI premiums. If you get both, only the controlled tips count as insurable and pensionable earnings, so direct tips don’t raise your EI benefit. Quebec works differently: Revenu Québec says the tips you report, other than tips your employer allocates to you, count toward EI and Quebec parental insurance benefits.

CPP on your tips

Because nothing comes off direct tips, they don’t build your Canada Pension Plan record on their own. The CRA says you can choose to pay CPP contributions on tips from pensionable employment that weren’t subject to CPP at source, by filling out Form CPT20. See Do servers pay tax on tips in Canada? for how each kind of tip gets reported.

Prescriptions: national pharmacare so far

Health Canada lists four places that have signed national pharmacare agreements, which cover a range of contraception and diabetes medications: British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Yukon. Everywhere else, Health Canada says to contact your provincial or territorial health ministry about public drug coverage. Your province’s health plan and drug plan are where most of your coverage comes from, so check those next.