What benefits can servers get in New Brunswick?
The short answer
In New Brunswick
| Health coverage (Medicare) | Moving from within Canada, coverage may start the first day of the third month after the month you settle here. Apply online, or mail or email the PDF form, or take it to a Service New Brunswick office. |
|---|---|
| New Brunswick Drug Plan | For residents with an active Medicare card who have no drug coverage, or whose plan has hit its maximum or doesn’t list a prescribed drug. No age or pre-existing-condition limits. Mail or fax one application for the family. |
| Drug Plan premiums and co-pay | Effective November 1, 2025, an individual with gross income of $19,168 or less pays $6.00 a month ($72 a year) and a 30% co-pay up to $5.25 per prescription. Both rise with income, to $241.33 a month and $36.00 per prescription at the top. Not filing taxes means the maximum premium. |
| Low-Income Tax Reduction | Cuts New Brunswick income tax for low-income filers. The 2025 threshold for a single filer is $21,920, with a 3% phase-out above it. |
| Vacation and vacation pay | Under 8 years: 4% of gross wages and the lesser of one day per month worked or two weeks. Over 8 years: 6% and the lesser of 1ÂĽ days per month or three weeks. You can take vacation after a year of service. |
| Paid public holidays | Eight a year. You qualify after 90 calendar days of employment in the prior 12 months if you work your scheduled days around the holiday. Off: a regular day’s pay. Worked: a regular day’s pay plus 1½ times your wage for the hours. |
| Sick leave | Up to five unpaid days in 12 months once you’ve worked more than 90 days. A medical certificate can be required for four or more consecutive days. |
| Long-term illness and injury leave | Listed as new: up to 27 weeks unpaid in any 52-week period after more than 90 days of continuous work, taken in blocks of at least a week. |
| Family responsibility leave | Up to three unpaid days a year for the health, care or education needs of a close family member. |
“The New Brunswick Drug Plan is a prescription drug plan that provides drug coverage for New Brunswickers without insurance and those with insurance that doesn’t cover certain prescriptions. Coverage is available regardless of pre-existing conditions or age.” (New Brunswick: Enrol in the New Brunswick Drug Plan)
Plus the federal programs: What benefits can servers get in Canada?
What’s different in New Brunswick
New Brunswick’s drug plan is something you buy into rather than something that kicks in after a big bill. Each adult who enrols pays a monthly premium by automatic withdrawal, set on family income from last year’s return, and dependants are covered free once a parent joins. At the lowest income tier that’s $72 a year per adult, and the co-pay on each prescription is capped too.
Holiday pay has a twist to watch for on your stubs: an employer may choose to add 4% of all your gross wages from day one instead of paying a regular day’s pay on each holiday, though you still get time and a half for working one. New residents wait for Medicare before they can apply for the drug plan. Add the federal side, with EI and the CDCP.
Official sources
- New Brunswick: Applying for Medicare coverage
- New Brunswick: Enrol in the New Brunswick Drug Plan
- New Brunswick Drug Plans: Premiums and co-payments
- New Brunswick Finance: Personal income tax
- New Brunswick: Paid public holidays, vacation time and pay
- New Brunswick: Other employment leaves of absence
- New Brunswick news release: sick leave legislation (March 18, 2026)
Last verified
. Checked the government pages linked above.
Still open: A March 18, 2026 news release said the 27-week illness leave had been introduced in the legislature; the employment standards page now lists it as new, but we didn’t confirm its in-force date. The holiday page’s rules for restaurants as continuous operations weren’t captured in full, and it doesn’t say whether tips count as wages.