Canadian Payroll Reporter

4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 News in Brief A look at news, facts and fi gures shaping the world of payroll professionals CPP maximum pensionable earnings increasing in 2015 › OTTAWA — The maximum pensionable earnings for the Canada Pension Plan will increase to $53,600 from $52,500 in 2015, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has announced. The contribution rate will remain 4.95 per cent for both employers and employees. The basic exemption will remain $3,500. As a result, the maximum contributions for 2015 will be $2,479.95, the CRA says. For the Quebec Pension Plan, the maximum is also expected to rise to $53,600 next year. The employee and employer contribution rate will increase to 5.25 per cent from 5.175. As a result, the maximum contributions for 2015 are expected to be $2,630.25. Unemployment 6.5 per cent in October: StatsCan › OTTAWA — Canada's economy gained 43,000 jobs in October, lowering the unemployment rate to 6.5 per cent, Statistics Canada reports. It is the country's lowest unemployment rate since Novem- ber 2008. Industries where employment increased in Oc- tober included retail and wholesale trade; educa- tional services; manufacturing; and finance, insur- ance, real estate and leasing. Employment was down in sectors such as pub- lic administration and natural resources. The number of private sector employees and self-employed workers went up in October, while the number of public service employees de- creased. On a provincial basis, unemployment rates were down or unchanged in almost every jurisdiction. Newfoundland and Labrador continued to have the highest unemployment rate at 12 per cent, but it was down from 12.7 per cent in the previous month. Saskatchewan remained the jurisdiction with the lowest unemployment rate at 3.5 per cent, unchanged from September. In Ontario, the unemployment rate fell to 6.5 per cent from 7.1 per cent the previous month. In the United States, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the American economy added 214,000 jobs in October, lowering the unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent from 5.9 per cent. Reduced EI rates set for 2015 › OTTAWA — Service Canada has released the re- duced EI premium rates for 2015 for employers with registered wage-loss replacement plans. For 2015, the following rates will apply: Category 1 plans: x 1.298 the employee pre- mium (1.275 for employers with employees in Quebec) Category 2 plans: x 1.223 the employee pre- mium (1.183 for employers with employees in Quebec) Category 3 plans: x 1.224 the employee pre- mium (1.186 for employers with employees in Quebec) Category 4 plans: x 1.208 the employee pre- mium (1.165 for employers with employees in Quebec) The category refers to the group to which Ser- vice Canada assigns the employer, based on type of wage-loss replacement plan the employer has. Little change in August earnings: StatsCan › OTTAWA — Average weekly earnings of non- farm payroll employees were $943.30 in August, up only slightly from $942.01 in July, Statistics Canada reports. Statistics Canada revised the July numbers from the previously reported $940.43. On a year-over-year basis, weekly earnings in- creased 3.5 per cent in August. The increase in weekly earnings during the 12 months to August reflected a number of factors, including wage growth, changes in the composi- tion of employment by industry, occupation and level of job experience, as well as average hours worked per week. Non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 33 hours a week in August, up slightly from an average of 32.8 hours 12 months earlier. Year-over-year earnings of non-farm payroll em- ployees increased in all provinces, with the biggest growth in Manitoba, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador. The smallest growth occurred in On- tario and Quebec. Boards strongly encourage online fi ling employer operates in more than one indus- try, the workers' comp body may assign the employer multiple accounts, each with its own assessment rate. For non-administrative staff, it is easy for employers to determine which workers be- long in which group, says Wilson. Problems tend to arise with administrative staff. Depending on the work they do, some- times administrative staff belong in just one group. Other times, employers need to pro- rate their earnings across all classifications. "Other variations on this can be when they operate a head office in Alberta and they pro- vide services in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Sometimes that payroll needs to be prorated. Sometimes it needs to stay exclusively within Alberta because the workers are in Alberta and that's the only place that they are work- ing," Wilson says. Most employers are not making mistakes on purpose or for criminal reasons, he says. "What more so happens is that we have unique rules compared to other organiza- tions like the Canada Revenue Agency or Employment Insurance or other groups and so it's just understanding all those rules that produce the errors." Some of the mistakes, at least in Alberta, may stem from high turnover of staff who are completing the annual workers' compensa- tion report, says Wilson. "As a result, we are working with compa- nies sometimes where the person has never filed a report before or is taking over for someone who left and didn't leave that strong of a paper trail," he says. "For payroll folks, one of the messages we would love to give them is they can create that paper trail not only for themselves for the next year, but should they get a better op- portunity, the person who follows them can do a fantastic job reporting right after that." Wynne says her board is taking steps to help employers better understand workers' compensation requirements. "The WCB recognizes that our business can be complex at times. For that reason, we are currently revising many of our publica- tions and letters for employers so that they are easier to understand." Both Wiebe and Wilson say one of the best ways to prevent errors is to file online. The Alberta board has offered online filing for close to 10 years. Wilson says over 90 per cent of insurable earnings reported this way. If employers file online, the system can help them complete the return step by step with pop-up boxes, help scenarios and au- tomatic math calculations, he says. While online reporting is not mandatory, the board strongly encourages it, says Wilson. Manitoba is getting into online filing. It introduced the option last year to a select group. Beginning with 2014 reporting, all employers can file online if they choose. "We wanted to make sure it was working properly, so we only advertised it to a small percentage of our employers. I think we are around 12 per cent that are online for this past year. Our hope is that we will be 80 per cent within the next couple of years," Wiebe says. from REPORTING on page 2

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