Glossary
Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
The Canada Pension Plan is Canada's mandatory federal retirement program. Every payday an employer withholds a CPP contribution from an employee's pensionable earnings, then matches that amount dollar for dollar and sends both halves to the Canada Revenue Agency. The employer's matching share is a real cost of hiring, not just a deduction, so it belongs in any staffing budget. Quebec runs a parallel plan called the QPP. For a fuller walkthrough see our guide to CPP, CPP2 and EI, and estimate the true employer cost with our payroll cost calculator.
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