What benefits can servers get in Quebec?
The short answer
In Quebec
| Health insurance (RAMQ) | Free covered care with a valid Health Insurance Card. For people settling in Québec, coverage usually begins after a waiting period of up to 3 months; people coming from another province stay covered by their old plan meanwhile. |
|---|---|
| Prescription drug insurance | Compulsory. If you have access to a private plan through work, you must join it; otherwise you register for RAMQâs public plan, which covers around 8,000 drugs. Going without means paying Revenu QuĂ©bec the equivalent of the public plan premium. |
| Tips and paid leave | Vacation pay and pay for statutory holidays and family events are calculated on base wages plus the tips you report. If you report them all, your employer must count them. |
| Tips and EI or QPIP | Tips you report, other than tips your employer allocates, count in calculating Employment Insurance and Québec Parental Insurance Plan benefits. |
| Annual vacation | One day per month worked in your first year, 2 weeks after 1 year, 3 weeks after 3 years. Vacation pay is 4% of gross wages, rising to 6% after 3 years. |
| Statutory holidays | 8 paid holidays, for part-time and casual workers too. Each pays 1/20 of wages from the 4 full pay weeks before, including reported or attributed tips. Skipping the workday before or after without a valid reason loses it, except June 24. |
| Sick and family days | Job protected for up to 26 weeks of illness in 12 months. After 3 months of service, the first 2 days a year for illness or family obligations are paid. No medical note can be required for the first 3 absences of 3 days or less. |
| Work premium (2025 tax year) | A Revenu Québec tax credit for workers 18 or older. You need work income over $2,400 living alone or as a single parent ($3,600 as a couple), and family income under $24,475 living alone, $38,017 for a couple without children, $43,280 for a single parent, or $59,369 for a couple with a child. |
| Parental insurance (QPIP) | At least $2,000 of insurable earnings in the qualifying period, however few hours you worked, Québec residence when benefits start, and at least a 40% drop in your usual weekly pay. |
âVacation pay as well as pay for statutory holidays and for family events such as a marriage, birth, adoption or death are calculated on your base wages plus tips.â (Revenu QuĂ©bec: Employees who receive tips, benefits and obligations)
Plus the federal programs: What benefits can servers get in Canada?
Whatâs different in Quebec
QuĂ©bec is where declaring tips pays off most directly. The Act respecting labour standards builds your reported tips into the indemnities for vacation, statutory holidays and the 2 paid sick or family days, so the tips you report raise your vacation and holiday pay, not just your wages. In Ontario, B.C. and Alberta the vacation-pay rules leave tips out. Revenu QuĂ©bec adds that reported tips also feed EI and QPIP benefits; tips your employer allocates to reach 8% of sales donât.
Drug coverage works the other way round from most places: itâs mandatory. If youâre offered the group plan at work, youâre required to take it. The work premium rewards low earnings from a job, starting at $2,400 of work income for someone living alone. Plus the federal programs, including the dental plan.
Official sources
- Revenu Québec: Employees who receive tips, benefits and obligations
- RAMQ: Know the eligibility conditions for health insurance
- RAMQ: Eligibility conditions for the Public Prescription Drug Insurance Plan
- CNESST: Annual vacation
- CNESST: Statutory holidays in Québec
- CNESST: Calculating the indemnity for a statutory holiday
- CNESST: Maladie ou accident non lié au travail
- Revenu Québec: Eligibility requirements for the work premium tax credits
- Québec.ca: QPIP eligibility conditions for a pregnancy or birth
Last verified
. Checked the government pages linked above.
Still open: Work premium thresholds shown are for 2025; Revenu QuĂ©bec indexes them. The public drug plan premium is set each year and wasnât on the pages we read.