How Much Does WSIB Pay While You Are Off Work?

The rent does not pause while you heal. Somewhere between the injury and the first payment, everybody arrives at the same question. How much is actually coming in.

The WSIB pays 85% of your pre-injury net average earnings while a work-related injury keeps you off the job, calculated on earnings up to the 2026 maximum insurable earnings ceiling of $121,700. Net average earnings means your take-home pay after income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions and Employment Insurance premiums, rather than your gross salary. The benefit is not taxable, which is why the rate sits below 100%. If you return to work earning less than before, the WSIB pays 85% of the gap.

A loss of earnings benefit is the wage replacement part of a WSIB claim, paid under section 43 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. It is separate from your health care coverage and separate from any award for permanent impairment.

How is the WSIB benefit rate calculated?

In three steps, and the order matters.

First the WSIB establishes your gross average earnings from your actual recent pay, averaged across a representative period. Second it converts that to net average earnings by deducting the income tax, Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance amounts you would probably have paid. Third it pays 85% of that net figure.

The gap between 85% and your old pay cheque is smaller than the number suggests, because WSIB benefits are not taxed while your wages were. What lands in your account is closer to your former take-home pay than the percentage implies. That is the reasoning behind the rate rather than a defence of it.

Your employer pays your full wages for the day of the injury itself. Loss of earnings benefits begin from the following day. There is no waiting period.

Earnings from more than one job covered by the WSIB can be counted in the calculation, so tell your adjudicator about every job you hold. Workers with second jobs lose money here more often than anywhere else in the calculation.

What is the maximum the WSIB pays in Ontario?

Earnings are only insured up to an annual ceiling, and anything above it is invisible to the calculation. For 2026 that ceiling is $121,700. It is adjusted each January.

Someone earning $150,000 has their benefit worked out as though they earned $121,700. The difference is not recoverable through the WSIB, which is why higher earners often carry private disability coverage alongside it.

What happens if you go back to work part time?

You move from a full benefit to a partial one. The WSIB pays 85% of the difference between your pre-injury net average earnings and what you are earning now.

This is the stage where the record you keep starts to matter financially rather than only procedurally. If modified duties are cutting your hours or if a graduated schedule has you at three days rather than five, the benefit should reflect it. A change in hours that nobody writes down is a change that nobody pays for.

How long do WSIB loss of earnings benefits last?

Until your loss of earnings ends or until you turn 65, whichever comes first. If you were 63 or older on the date of injury, benefits run for up to two years from that date instead.

One further limit is worth knowing early. Under section 44 of the Act the WSIB generally cannot review your loss of earnings payments more than 72 months after the date of injury. At that point the rate is effectively locked. Six years feels distant when you are newly hurt, and it arrives faster than anyone expects.

What other WSIB benefits can you receive?

Loss of earnings is one part of a claim rather than the whole of it.

• Health care. Treatment related to the injury, including physiotherapy, prescriptions, assistive devices and specialist care.
• Travel and related costs. Getting to and from appointments for your claim.
• Non-economic loss. Known as a NEL award, payable where the injury leaves a permanent impairment. It is assessed once your condition has stabilized and it is separate from wage replacement.
• Loss of retirement income. Provided for under section 45 of the Act, recognizing that time on benefits is time not contributing to a pension.

What are you allowed to do about your WSIB benefit amount?

You are allowed to ask the WSIB in writing how your net average earnings figure was calculated and which pay periods it used.

You are allowed to object if that figure is wrong, within 6 months of the decision.

You are allowed to have earnings from every WSIB covered job counted rather than only your main one.

You are allowed to report a material change in your circumstances at any point, and you are expected to.

You are allowed to ask which provision of the Act or which policy a decision about your money rests on.

What should you record to protect your WSIB benefit?

Six things. Every one of them is an input to a calculation someone else is doing about your income.

1. Your earnings before the injury. Pay stubs covering the months before the date of injury, including overtime, shift premiums and any variable pay.
2. Every job you hold. Employer, hours, pay and whether that employer is covered by the WSIB.
3. Days and hours missed. Every absence, every shortened shift and every shift you were sent home from.
4. What you earn now. Modified duties, reduced hours, lower rate of pay and the date each change started.
5. Expenses. Prescriptions, devices, parking and travel to appointments. You cannot claim what you cannot prove.
6. Decision letters and their dates. The date on the letter starts the objection clock rather than the date you opened it.

The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide holds the earnings, hours and expense record and works with any board in Canada. The Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide holds the Ontario part, meaning the objection limits, the forms and the appeal route. Benefit disputes turn on pay stubs and dates, which is exactly the material people throw away.

Read next

• How Does a WSIB Claim Work in Ontario?
• Can You Be Fired While on a WSIB Claim in Ontario?
• What Happens at a WSIB Medical Assessment

Last verified August 2026. Benefit rates, the maximum insurable earnings ceiling and the provisions cited are Ontario rules under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act and do not apply in other provinces or territories. The ceiling is adjusted each January. Individual entitlement depends on the facts of your claim. Hurt Square Companion Guides are tools for documenting your own recovery. They are not legal, medical or insurance advice.