How Do I Know If My Employer Is Paying CPP?

Your CPP contributions are taken from your pay, matched by your employer and sent to the Canada Revenue Agency, and they count toward your future CPP pension. You can check that this is happening in three places: your pay stub, your T4 slip and your CPP statement of contributions. This page covers each one, when no CPP is deducted, and what happens if an employer fails to deduct it. It is part of the income tax hub; the TD1 form guide covers the income tax side of payroll and the payroll tax calculator estimates the deductions on a paycheque.

Who contributes

• You are over 18.
• You work in Canada outside Quebec (Quebec workers contribute to the QPP).
• You earn more than the basic exemption, $3,500 a year.
• You are not considered disabled under the CPP or the QPP.
• Contributions stop when you turn 70, even if you keep working.
• From 65 to 70, someone receiving a CPP or QPP retirement pension can elect to stop (employees with Form CPT30, self-employed people on Schedule 8).

The employer’s part: Your employer deducts CPP contributions from your pensionable earnings and contributes an equal amount itself, and handles the second additional contribution (CPP2) the same way; if you are self-employed, you pay both the employee and employer shares. Employers in Quebec deduct QPP contributions instead.

For an employer, the CRA’s employers’ guide (T4001) sets out when deductions start and stop:

• Deductions start with the first pay dated in the month after the employee turns 18.
• They continue up to and including the last pay dated in the month the employee turns 70.
• They are not made for an employee considered disabled under the CPP or the QPP.
• They stop for an employee at least 65 but under 70 who receives a CPP or QPP retirement pension and gives the employer Form CPT30.
• Employers in Quebec deduct QPP contributions instead of CPP.

Check 1: your pay stub

Each pay should show a CPP deduction until you reach the year’s maximum, and a second deduction (CPP2) once your earnings for the year pass the first ceiling. The deduction on each pay is the CPP rate times your pensionable pay for the period, minus that period’s share of the basic exemption. The example shows the arithmetic, and how to read a pay stub explains the other lines and codes on it.

At this salary the regular CPP deduction reaches the annual maximum after about 24.2 pays’ worth of deductions, so the last pays of the year show no regular CPP. That is expected, not a sign that your employer stopped paying.

Check 2: your T4 slip

Your T4 slip reports the year’s totals. The boxes that matter for CPP, as described on the CRA’s T4 slip page:

For a full year in 2026 with one employer, box 16 should be close to 5.95% of the box 26 amount minus $3,500, up to $4,230.45. A part year (the year you turn 18 or 70, for example) uses a prorated maximum. If box 26 has earnings but box 16 is empty, ask your payroll department why.

The same boxes feed your tax return: you use them on Schedule 8 (or Form RC381 if you also paid into the QPP) to claim the CPP credit and deduction.

Check 3: your CPP statement of contributions

The statement shows the contributions and pensionable earnings the CPP has on record for every year. To see it, sign in to My Service Canada Account, go to the Canada Pension Plan section and choose “View my contributions”. Service Canada’s statement page says to compare it with your T4 slips.

• The current year shows “not yet available”. That appears until the CPP receives the contribution information from the CRA (or the QPP); next year’s statement will show them if you file your tax return.
• A year is missing or wrong. Contact the Canada Pension Plan. Employees send a copy of their T4 slips, or a signed letter on company letterhead from each employer confirming the year’s earnings and CPP contributions.
• You live in Quebec. The statement isn’t available in My Service Canada Account if you have lived and worked only in Quebec, you live in Quebec now, or you live outside Canada and your last Canadian residence was in Quebec; contact Retraite Québec instead.

If CPP wasn’t deducted

Start with your payroll department: an employer can correct a missed deduction. The CRA’s employers’ guide sets out what happens next:

• The employer is responsible. An employer that fails to deduct CPP is responsible for the amounts even if it cannot recover them from you, and the CRA assesses it for both the employer’s and the employee’s share.
• Penalty. The CRA can charge the employer 10% of the CPP, EI and income tax it did not deduct, and 20% for a second or later failure in the same year made knowingly or through gross negligence. Interest is charged as well.
• Recovering your share. The employer can take your share from later pays, but no more per payment than it should have deducted from each one, and not for an amount outstanding more than 12 months.

Some work isn’t covered by the CPP at all, for example casual employment that isn’t part of the employer’s regular business, or work in Canada for an employer that isn’t resident in Canada, has no establishment here and hasn’t agreed to cover it. If you have income like that, or you worked for two employers at the same time and each applied the basic exemption, Form CPT20, Election To Pay Canada Pension Plan Contributions, lets you choose to contribute on it; page 3 of the form lists the types of employment it covers.

Self-employed

There is no employer when you are self-employed. If you are self-employed, you pay both the employee and employer shares of CPP contributions. You pay them when you file, on Schedule 8. The CPP contribution rates page has the self-employed rates and maximums.

Related guides

• Income tax hub
• What is a TD1 form?
• Payroll tax calculator
• CPP contribution rates
• T4 slip explained