Program providing paid sick leave to Yukon workers extended until April 2026

Press Release

February 27, 2025

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.

In addition to supporting workers, paid sick leave is an important component of maintaining public health and small business competitiveness. By empowering Yukoners to make the decision to stay home when they are feeling sick, we are helping to ensure that they aren’t risking their health and the health of others and don’t have to choose between their wellbeing and financial stability. I am glad that our government can continue to offer this rebate to support both businesses and their staff.

Premier and Minister of Economic Development Ranj Pillai

Quick facts

The $850,000 in funding for this program is included in Budget 2025–26 and is subject to legislative approval.
The rebate, paid to employers and self-employed Yukoners, covers up to 40 hours of sick leave per year for eligible employees and self-employed workers making less than or equal to the average hourly private sector wage in the Yukon.
When an employee takes time off because they are sick, they will continue to be paid by their employer as if they had been at work. The employer will then apply to the Government of Yukon for a rebate to cover those costs.
Workers employed by the Government of Yukon and its corporations, the Government of Canada and its corporations, Yukon First Nations governments, municipalities and federally regulated industries are not eligible.

Media contact

Laura Seeley
Cabinet Communications
867-332-7627
laura.seeley@yukon.ca

Damian Topps
Communications, Economic Development
867-667-5378
damian.topps@yukon.ca

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