So I am going to finish my first 4 months in an eng. coop, and I had something pop into my mind looking at my pay cheque and analyzing all the hands stealing from my weekly earnings: Where does my EI go when I finish and go back to school? Does it go into a nice big pot for other [email protected]$$#$ to take, and I get none of it? OR can I file for unemployment and get it back?

I would REALLY be angry if one of these two options occurred, and I'd be surprised if the other occurred... I'll leave those up to your imagination.

Anyways, anyone have any idea?

Thanks

BTW, Doing some research myself, I am being lead to believe I am going to be very upset by the answer to this question, but what REEEALLY gets me, is I never had a chance of receiving EI because it was a coop position, and yet they deduct it from me.

My opinion: If you're working in a job that you would never be allowed to collect EI for, then you shouldn't have it deducted.

Arn't you going back to school after your co'op? I don't think you can collect it if you're in school.

I'm just curious: whats the total amount of money you put into EI, and whats your rate of pay?
(I'm 10.25$/hr with about 1.75$ out of 100$ getting put into EI a week)

ROFL! I'm getting ROBBED. Theft on my pay cheque! $3.21 each hour ($16 / hr wages) goes into a pot that I was NEVER going to be allowed to stick my hand into. That right there is ILLEGAL in my books. Nobody should ever have the authority to take your wages and put them somewhere that I would never be able to go. That's like when your income taxes go to buying plane trips, vacations, meals, etc. for the government.....

WTF! 3$/hr into EI?

That doesn't make sense, the maximum contribution for EI for 2010 is around $750 for the year.

Originally Posted by mike_302

ROFL! I'm getting ROBBED. Theft on my pay cheque! $3.21 each hour ($16 / hr wages) goes into a pot that I was NEVER going to be allowed to stick my hand into. That right there is ILLEGAL in my books. Nobody should ever have the authority to take your wages and put them somewhere that I would never be able to go. That's like when your income taxes go to buying plane trips, vacations, meals, etc. for the government.....

They are not taking $3.21 per hour off your paycheque for EI. They're not allowed to take that much.
I have made over $7000 this summer, and the full amount that has been taken off for EI is $126. There's no way you'e losing $3 an hour. If you are, then you need to talk to someone in your accounting office, because they are fudging the numbers big time.

And you WILL be able to use EI, once you have been working and you become unemployed. It's not made for full time students to use while they are in school.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

They are not taking $3.21 per hour off your paycheque for EI. They're not allowed to take that much.
I have made over $7000 this summer, and the full amount that has been taken off for EI is $126. There's no way you'e losing $3 an hour. If you are, then you need to talk to someone in your accounting office, because they are fudging the numbers big time.

And you WILL be able to use EI, once you have been working and you become unemployed. It's not made for full time students to use while they are in school.

So after he finishes his last semester of school/co'op he'll be able to collect his monies while he looks for a job after he graduates?

The whole 3$/hour thing: are you sure its not 3$..? Or does it actually say '3$/hr' or some large amount of money (= # hrs worked * 3.21$)

Originally Posted by rcrw88

So after he finishes his last semester of school/co'op he'll be able to collect his monies while he looks for a job after he graduates?

No, because co-op or not, no full time student can collect EI right after graduation. You have to work a certain amount of hours, in a row, in order to collect EI. I get money deducted from my paycheque for EI when I work in the summer too, but I can't collect EI until I've been working for a set amount of hours, full time, within a certain period.

Yeeeeea.... {embarassed face} I actually looked for myself this time instead of asking someone to read the number off for me... Turns out I have $123 contributed for the entire SUMMER so far, meaning about whatever Kathy2 is contributing per hour... Lesson of the day: Never ask for help.

Hi,

essentially employment insurance is taken off your paycheque at a rate of 1.73%. So just multiply your gross by 1.73% to calculate the EI you are paying.

I don't mind EI as it's an insurance for laid-off people.

But, You should be more angry about CPP deductions.

It's been rising more and more the past decade and this is just to support the Baby Boomers when they retire.

They have paid almost nothing to CPP and will get most of our contributions while we will be lucky to get our investment back when we retire. Most likely, it'd wouldn't have even beaten inflation. I'd rather have my CPP contributions and invest it myself.

And last summer wheni worked for six weeks ( 30 h/week) I ended getting a tax refund check for $132 and I swear thats the exact amount i payed to EI

.. gonna use it to buy my MacPass

Originally Posted by myster

I don't mind EI as it's an insurance for laid-off people.

The problem with EI isn't the concept of insurance for laid-off people, that's a great thing, the problem is our implementation in Canada generally sucks and its instead effectively a tax on employment and a slush fund for the government.

Somewhere around 20% of the people who pay into EI aren't eligible for EI benefits for various reasons (working for family business, student status, not enough hours worked etc). This 20% is effectively subsidizing the EI rates for the 80% who are eligible for EI. Now these sorts of subsidies happen all the time, the problem with this subsidy is that it takes from the most vulnerable workers (part-time workers, temporary workers, students, etc) and subsidizes those with full-time hours. In that way, the EI system is unfair. While some efforts have been made to repair some of these flaws due to various class-action lawsuits (e.g. family members employed by a family business don't have to pay EI anymore, they used to have to but were prevented from collecting), there's still a long way to go.

Another huge problem with the EI system is the threshold required to meet EI eligibility. This threshold actually varies across the country and so a worker in Western Canada, for example, generally has to work about 40% more hours to quality for EI than a worker in Atlantic Canada.

If EI is meant to be insurance, then the barriers that exclude people from collecting EI need to be fixed. Would you pay car insurance if, when you caused an accident you still had to pay all the costs (liability, repairs, etc) that were caused by the accident? Of course not, but that's what happens with EI. If the system isn't fixed, it should really be renamed to the Employment Tax, as that what it effectively is.

Oh as a side bonus, the accumulated surplus of EI premiums was $58 billion dollars ($3500 for every working Canadian) before the recession hit (I'm not sure what is at now, but its definitely smaller) and was a direct result of making it harder to qualify for EI. Both the Liberals and Conservatives had previously diverted this surplus money towards the general revenue stream of the federal government and used it to fund whatever MPs hearts desired.

Mike, the good news is that if your employer is deducting income taxes and other stuff based on a 12-month year, since you're only working there for four months, you should be able to get a lot back on your tax refund next year. Four figures could potentially happen. I made 18/hr for 6 months in 2009 and got $2100 back this April. I barely grossed $20k. I guarantee at least a few hundred for you.


Hope this helps,
Mohandas