Program providing paid sick leave to Yukon workers extended until April 2026
jlutz
Subject to legislative approval of Budget 2025–26, the Government of Yukon is extending the Paid Sick Leave Rebate Program for an additional year, keeping the program available until March 31, 2026.
This program covers the cost of up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per 12-month period for eligible workers at no cost to their employer.
The rebate program helps Yukon businesses by:
- allowing them to provide more employee benefits without paying extra costs;
- strengthening competitiveness in the labour market; and
- helping create a more supportive work environment by enabling employers to offer paid sick leave through voluntary participation in the program.
The rebate program helps Yukon workers by:
- providing financial stability for employees and self-employed workers who must take time off work because of sickness or injury;
- helping keep people healthy in the Yukon; and
- alleviating the need for workers to choose between getting sick and getting paid.
Since the program launched in April 2023, over 170 Yukon businesses have applied for rebates and over 1,100 employees have received paid time off through the program when they are sick. In the first year of the program, approximately 50 per cent of employees who used the program worked in retail trade, 19 per cent in accommodation and food services and 13 per cent in the health and social assistance sector.