‘Some businesses, like the smallest ones, will have more difficulty giving more vacation days compared to bigger ones’
Quebec’s new Parti Québécois (PQ) government plans to raise the province’s minimum paid vacation to three weeks for employees with one year of service, a change with payroll and scheduling consequences for employers.
Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon tasked Mathieu Lebrun, the new minister of labour, employment and social solidarity, with delivering the pledge as the cabinet was sworn in on Oct. 21, 2026, Narcity reported.
No effective date was announced, Radio X reported. The PQ holds 59 of the National Assembly’s 127 seats, according to Noovo Info, so it will need opposition votes to amend the law.
What the paid vacation change means under Quebec law
That law, the Act respecting labour standards, grants two weeks of vacation after one year of uninterrupted service and three weeks after three years. Section 74 sets vacation pay at 4% of gross wages for the two-week tier and 6% for the three-week tier, according to the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), so any amendment must also settle the pay rate.
Michelle LLambías Meunier, president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ), estimated the measure could lift vacation pay from 4% to 6%, Le Devoir reported.
Transition rules also matter. When Quebec cut the three-week threshold from five years to three on Jan. 1, 2019, disputes over when the third week applied reached arbitration, according to an analysis by Quebec law firm Langlois Lawyers. The province has since promoted vacation rules through the Quebec government’s 2025 campaign to raise awareness of labour standards.
The government argues the change won’t affect the provincial budget because collective agreements already offer more generous vacation, CTV News reported. Small employers see it differently.
Small employers warn of a domino effect
“When you increase the minimum, it will have a domino effect,” François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), told CTV News. “And some businesses, like the smallest ones, will have more difficulty giving more vacation days compared to bigger ones.”
He said half of Quebec businesses have fewer than five employees – consistent with Institut de la statistique du Québec data showing 53.0% in 2019 – and put the cost of an extra week at more than $1,000 per employee, depending on circumstances.
Covering those absences is harder amid the shortages behind Quebec employers’ push for swift immigration changes to retain workers.
Who gains from three weeks of paid vacation
Annie Boilard, a human resources specialist and owner of Réseau Annie RH, told CTV News that younger employees and career changers stand to gain most, but cautioned that not everyone would choose time off over pay.
“At the end of the day, usually people don’t pay their grocery with vacation week, they pay their grocery with salaries,” she said, suggesting a choice between extra vacation and a raise.
Current law, however, generally bars pay in lieu of vacation, according to CFIB guidance. Time off still matters to staff: vacation leave was the top-rated benefit in HRD Canada’s 2026 Best Places to Work survey, scoring 4.80 out of 5.
