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Canada has an advanced economy with a GDP of $2.28 trillion and a labor force of over 22.867 workers, 80% of whom are employed in the services sector. Hiring and managing these skilled workers can be a serious challenge for both domestic and international companies because of the complex, extensive regulations on employment and taxation in the country. Working with a PEO in Canada can help your organization succeed by providing your employees with professional HR services and keeping their employment compliant.
We think the best Canada Professional Employer Organizations in 2025 are:
In this review, we’ll explain what a PEO does, how engaging one works, and how to choose from among the top PEOs in Canada to find a partner that will be a perfect fit for your business.
A Canada Professional Employer Organization, or PEO, is a service provider that works with you in the capacity of a co-employer to help manage HR and compliance for your employees. When you do business in Canada with a PEO, it typically manages HR functions like payroll, benefits administration, paid time off (PTO), and more.
Your PEO will normally take on an important role in managing compliance for your business. As a crucial part of payroll processing, it will calculate your employees’ income taxes, withhold them, and pay them to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Likewise, it will calculate both their and your contributions to their Canada Pension Plans (or Quebec pension plans in the Province of Quebec) and Employment Insurance (EI), and also submit these to the CRA. The PEO will also handle tax reporting to this authority. Most PEOs generate employee contracts to ensure they comply perfectly with Canadian labor laws. They also monitor changes to federal and provincial laws so they can adjust conditions and entitlements accordingly when needed.
Most Canada PEOs provide their services through a combination of expert advice, cloud-based platforms, and customer support. Their platforms automate as many functions as possible to increase the accuracy and speed of their service provisions. They typically work like central HR systems, helping you to manage multiple aspects of HR, like employee engagement, people analytics, and even, sometimes, recruitment. Often, these platforms offer pre-built integrations with your other HR, accounting, and finance software so you can share data smoothly across your tech stack.
A PEO is similar to an EOR or Employer of Record, another type of service provider that manages HR and compliance for you. The main difference is that a PEO can act as a co-employer with you, while an EOR directly hires your employees and becomes their legal employer. Nevertheless, these terms are frequently used interchangeably in the industry.
There are hundreds of providers offering PEO services in Canada, and choosing one can be a challenge because their services can seem so similar. Instead of wasting hours reading through online information to compare providers, we recommend these companies as the top PEOs in Canada in 2025:
Remote People is an HR services provider based in New York. It offers services like PEO, EOR, and payroll in Canada and in another 150+ other countries around the world. Remote stands out for being one of the most affordable providers in the market, with PEO and EOR services both starting at just $199/employee per month in Canada. You can also use its platform for free to manage independent contractors – you only pay fees when you make transfers to pay their invoices.
The Remote People platform can be considered a full HRIS because of the range of tools and features it covers. These include standard PEO tools for payroll processing, benefits administration, and PTO management. They also extend to time and attendance tracking tools that connect your data collection straight to payroll, an ATS (applicant tracking system) to help you keep track of potential employees, and expense management features to keep your books straight. This platform is consistently ranked highly for user-friendliness and is one of the easiest to learn in the PEO industry.
Healthcare in Canada is mostly universal and free, except when it’s not. Remote People’s PEO services help you offer additional health benefits for your employees that aren’t covered under federal programs, including prescription drug coverage, vision and dental insurance, and ambulance fees. It also offers private life insurance and employee equity plans that can make your vacancies much more attractive. Remote People hires at scale and can therefore offer you benefits at much lower rates than you’d normally be able to negotiate as a single business.
Finally, Remote People is one of only a handful of PEO providers that also offer recruitment services in Canada. Its professional recruiters can use their extensive talent pools and knowledge of the local labor market to help you find and hire top-quality employees quickly.
| User-friendly platform | Remote People’s platform has been given great reviews for ease of use, and a 5-star rating on G2. |
| Recruitment services | This provider has extensive connections in Canada and can help you find staff quickly in all industries. |
| Full HRIS platform | You can manage all aspects of HR for your Canadian employees with one piece of software, rather than having to juggle multiple subscriptions. |
| Time and attendance tools | Time-tracking is built into the Remote People platform to help you collect data easily and share it automatically with payroll. |
| Employee portal | Your employees can use the platform to view their pay records and see their benefits entitlements, helping to keep them informed and satisfied. |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Offers some of the most affordable fees in the industry | No mobile app |
| Combines PEO services with active recruitment services | Platform limited to only 50+ pre-built software integrations |
| Provides a good range of affordable supplementary benefits plans |
Find out more by reading our in-depth review of Remote People on RemotePad.
Founded in 2019 in San Francisco, Deel works as both a US and global PEO, as well as an EOR and global payroll services provider. Since it’s based in the US, Deel has provided US PEO services since its beginning, and while the price for this service isn’t clearly offered on its pricing page, we’ve found that it starts at around $89/employee per month. However, it’s not clear what Deel’s global PEO prices are, but it charges $599/employee per month for EOR services, so we can expect them to be similar.
Deel, like Remote People, manages basic HR functions for your Canadian employees, like payroll and benefits. Its platform goes a lot deeper, however, and is a very extensive HRIS that’s full of features. Employee engagement, analytics and reporting, and performance management are all standard parts of its system. This platform also provides you with an ATS to help you manage recruitment, since it only connects you to agencies in Canada and doesn’t offer active recruitment services. You can also use the Deel platform for IT management, helping you further centralize your data.
Deel lets you add supplementary benefits administration services for equity plans, life insurance, and health coverage in Canada. You can also add services like background checks, immigration support, and device management to your service package if needed.
| Extensive HRIS platform | Deel’s platform is a standalone HRIS with all the features you need to provide enterprise-quality HR services. |
| Solid integration | The Deel platform integrates out of the box with over 80 other prices of accounting, finance, scheduling, HR, and communications software. |
| Additional services | Global payroll, EOR, background checks, immigration support, IT management, equity, entity setup, and other services can be used in succession or combined to fill clients’ needs. |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Mobile app provided for employees and admins | Costs can add up when businesses scale |
| Offers supplementary benefits packages to enhance employee compensation | Extensive platform can be hard to learn |
| 24/7 live chat support |
Check out RemotePad’s detailed review of Deel here.
Papaya Global is also based in New York and offers PEO and EOR services across the border in Canada. This provider is active in over 160 countries worldwide, giving it slightly broader coverage than Remote People and Deel and helping you hire in lesser-known locations.
You can also work with Papaya Global to hire contractors directly, or with extra liability protection with Papaya Global as your Agent of Record. This provider’s EOR and PEO price starts at around $599/employee per month, according to client reviews (pricing isn’t publicly available), while you can hire contractors for around $30/person per month.
The Papaya Global platform is also a standalone HRIS with a wide range of features that help you manage all your HR needs. These include time-tracking and expense management tools, now powered by AI for greater efficiency and accuracy. In addition to AI helping to keep them compliant, each client also receives support from a dedicated customer success manager who can answer their questions and help them navigate the challenges of Canadian regulations.
| Payment system | Papaya Global owns its own payment system, which helps clients pay their contractors and employees, as well as the Canadian authorities, very quickly and easily. |
| AI integration | This provider’s platform now uses AI tools that check all data inputs and calculations for accuracy. |
| Employee access | Papaya Global provides an employee portal and mobile app that lets your workers review their payments and benefits and clock their hours easily. |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Payment processing is the fastest in the industry | Pricing is not publicly available, though fees are reported as above average |
| 24/7 live support and dedicated customer success managers | Limited software integrations |
| Mobile app for easy employee self-service |
Gain deeper insights with RemotePad’s full Papaya Global review.
Safeguard Global was founded in Austin, Texas, in 2008 and was one of the first PEO providers in the world to offer services through an extensive digital platform. It has since grown steadily and now provides HR services in 187 countries. In Canada, it works as an international PEO, EOR, payroll provider, and recruiter. While this provider’s prices aren’t publicly available, our research shows a starting price of $499/employee per month.
As a PEO in Canada, Safeguard Global can help you source talent with the help of its professional recruiters. Once you’ve found the people you need, it will create contracts for you and help you hire and onboard these employees quickly. It will take care of mandatory benefits for your Canadian workers, and also offers supplemental benefits that include additional health insurance, private pensions, and equity plans.
This provider also offers lots of additional services to help clients run their businesses in Canada. These include entity setup, temporary staffing, payroll, HR outsourcing, immigration, and accounting services, essentially covering all the help a business could need.
| Recruitment | Safeguard Global’s recruiters help you find the skilled Canadian workers your business requires. |
| Extensive platform | The Safeguard platform is a full HRIS that lets you manage all HR functions within a single system. |
| Extensive business support | This PEO provides lots of extra services like immigration support and accounting services. |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Handles all HR functions from recruitment to offboarding | Pricing not publicly available, but reported as above average |
| Mobile app provided | Limited integrations |
Read more about Safeguard Global in our full review on RemotePad.
North Carolina-based Oyster was founded in 2020 and now offers services in 180 countries. Oyster’s pricing starts at $699/employee per month, which is somewhat higher than average. Oyster lets you hire contractors for just $29/person per month and outsource your payroll for the same price.
In Canada, Oyster lets you offer great benefits to your employees that include pensions and allowances. You can also supplement their healthcare by offering health insurance not only in Canada, but also with global coverage for when they travel abroad.
Oyster also provides services to help you convert contractors to full-time employees, as well as salary insights to help you build attractive yet appropriate compensation packages for Canadian employees.
| Global health insurance | Oyster offers health insurance in Canada and globally as an attractive employee benefit. |
| Liability protection | “Oyster Shell” protection can help you avoid worker misclassification penalties and provides coverage of up to $500,000, along with intellectual property protection. |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Transparent pricing | Limited platform integrations |
| Global coverage | No recruitment |
| Risk management and protection | No mobile app |
There’s more to learn about Oyster in our detailed review on Remotepad.
Pebl, which changed its name from Velocity Global in 2025, was founded in 2014 and is based in Denver. This provider has incorporated AI support and analysis into all aspects of its platform to provide its clients with a smoother experience and greater speed and accuracy in managing data and calculations. Pebl also lowered its prices to reflect this change, now offering a more competitive starting price of $399/employee per month.
In Canada, Pebl works as an international PEO and an EOR, while also providing payroll services. It lets employers add optional benefits like private pensions and health insurance to support their employees. Pebl also helps connect you with recruitment agencies in Canada, move employees to the country, and handle payroll for your business.
| AI integration | AI tools help to maintain data accuracy and create compliant contracts and other documents for clients. |
| Fast onboarding | Pebl advertises the ability to onboard your Canadian employees in just one day, helping you start working with them extremely quickly. |
| Immigration support | Pebl helps you relocate foreign nationals to Canada through work permit and visa support. |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Mobile app available | Limited software integrations |
| Average pricing | No built-in ATS for self-service recruitment |
| 24/7 live and AI support |
We have an in-depth review of RemotePad to help you learn more about Pebl.
If you’re not experienced with managing HR and compliance in Canada, your organization can obtain many different benefits by partnering with a PEO. These include:
With its mixed cultural tradition, Canada has inherited a legal system that combines elements of British common law and French civil law. This system offers a wide range of statutes that protect the rights of workers while considering the needs of employers, and are included in legislation such as the Constitution, Canada Labour Code (CLC), and Employment Equity Act. The individual provinces and territories of Canada also have their own laws, which can vary somewhat as long as they don’t fall below minimum federal standards. Some of the most important regulations to be aware of include:
In Canada, contracts can be oral or written, though written contracts are more dependable for both parties. Fixed-term contracts are legal, and there is no federally mandated limit to their durations. However, the provinces set their own limits and determine the conditions that define a reasonable expectation for a fixed-term contract to become permanent.
Canadians typically work a 40-hour workweek, though some now work only 37.5 hours a week. They’re normally entitled to at least one 30-minute unpaid break after working for five hours, which normally takes the form of a meal break. They can work overtime but are usually limited to working 12-13 hours a day and, in some provinces, 48 hours a week. Overtime pay is normally 150% of the worker’s normal rate.
Each province and territory in Canada sets its own minimum wage. The current levels are:
| Province / Territory | Minimum Wage in CAD/hour |
| Alberta | 15.00 |
| British Columbia | 17.85 |
| Manitoba | 16.00 |
| New Brunswick | 15.65 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 16.00 |
| Northwest Territory | 16.95 |
| Nova Scotia | 16.50 |
| Nunavut | 19.75 |
| Ontario | 17.60 |
| Prince Edward Island | 17.00 |
| Quebec | 16.10 |
| Saskatchewan | 15.35 |
| Yukon | 17.94 |
Employees are entitled to mandatory benefits that include paid public holidays, paid annual leave, maternity and paternity leave, parental leave, and sick leave. In some provinces, they can also receive leave for bereavement, compassionate care, or family violence. Employees must also receive at least eight hours of rest between shifts and one full day off per week.
Employers in Canada are required to calculate and withhold income taxes from their employees’ paychecks, some of which may be refunded after they file their annual tax returns. Employees pay 0-33% federal income tax on their earnings, as well as 4% up to 21.8% provincial tax.
Employees are deducted 5.95% of their salaries up to $71,300, and then 4.00% on earnings from $71,3001 to $81,200 for contributions to their Canada Pension Plans (CPP). Employers match these contributions. Employees are also required to pay 1.64% of their earnings toward Employment Insurance (EI), while employers contribute 2.296%.
Canada is not an at-will employment country. Instead, the Canada Labour Code protects employees who have worked for at least 12 months from unfair dismissal. Those employees who are fairly dismissed, except in cases of gross misconduct, are entitled to at least two weeks’ notice. After working for three years, they should receive a week’s notice for each year of service, to a maximum of eight weeks. Likewise, employees who worked for at least 12 months are entitled to five days’ wages or two days’ wages for each year they worked, whichever is greater.
If you want to bring a foreign worker to Canada to work for your undertaking, you must first obtain a labor market impact assessment (LMIA) from Employment and Social Development Canada. The LMIA assesses whether or not there are Canadians available who could fill your vacancy. If not, you may obtain the LMIA and sponsor the employee’s work permit. The worker will also need to obtain a Temporary Resident Visa to enter Canada for employment purposes.
Managing HR and compliance for your employees in Canada can be a very complex and difficult task, and one you may not have the time, expertise, or resources to pursue. Working with a PEO can be a viable alternative for SMBs looking to offer their employees professional HR services and top-quality benefits. The six providers we’ve recommended here are the best Canada Professional Employer Organizations, and each can be an ideal partner for your business.
For help choosing the best PEO to work with in Canada, contact RemotePad’s global hiring and PEO experts today.
No, it’s rare for PEOs to provide recruitment services in Canada, with only a handful of providers doing so. Other providers may connect you with recruitment agencies, provide you with self-help recruiting tools, or simply keep their hands off of this function.
PEO service prices in Canada can vary considerably, depending on the level of quality and range of services provided. Around $400/employee per month is an average price for Canada PEO services, with anything less being a good deal.
