Recently due to the Covid19 pandemic problems in Canada, the Trudeau Government had introduced wage subsidy to help big and small business pay their employees instead of having them laid off from their job position.
Questions arises as to how can a small business take advantage of this emergency wage subsidy offered by the Government, and what are the guidelines according to which a Canadian business can qualify for the wage subsidy?
Find out the details below in simple terms:
1. If you are a small business owner and your recent business revenue had dropped by at least 30% due to Covid19, you will be eligible for this emergency wage subsidy.
2. The number of employees you have working in your business does not affect the determination if you qualify for the wage subsidy or not. In other words, even if you have one employee or thousands employees working for your business, you could all qualify as long as you lost at least 30% of your business revenue due to Covid19.
3. The government will cover upto 75% of your worker's salary on the first $58,700 that they normally earn annually. That approximately translate to a maximum of $847 a week. This is backdated to 15th March. If your worker makes less than $58,700 annually, then it will be calculated as 75% of whatever amount they usually get annually.
4. This also means that you will make every effort to pay the remaining 25% to your workers and that you do not lay off your worker. If there are any workers you had laid off recently due to Covid19 reason, then you should make an effort to rehire them in order to take advantage of the government's emergency wage subsidy.
There are serious consequences for business people who tries to take advantage of this emergency wage subsidy offered by the government and could result in heavy penalty and fines for violating the rules and regulations. The government expects all businesses to have good faith and trust in this wage subsidy offer, and every dollar should go towards the worker's salary.
