This is the kind of thing that comes around twice a year and still catches everyone off guard. The CCQ publishes its new rate tables. You note it. And then the 14th of the month arrives and your office manager realizes the rates in the file are still the old ones.

The increases take effect April 26, 2026 — right in the middle of the May monthly report period. If your next pay run covers hours worked on both sides of that date, you need to calculate two separate rate tables.

What changed, sector by sector

The adjustment applies to all construction collective agreements. The percentages vary by sector (source: CCQ):

Light residential (R and R2) — +5.5%
Heavy residential (R1) — +5.0%
Civil engineering and road works — +5.0%
Institutional and commercial — +5.0%
Industrial — +5.0%

It's not just base hourly rates that move. Social benefit rates, social contribution rates, safety equipment allowances, and the welding qualification fund contribution are all revised on the same date. For certain trades and occupations, a wage catchup adds to the annual increase — which can make a more noticeable difference depending on who you have on your sites.

What this means for May pay

If your work week starts Monday April 21 and ends Friday April 30, hours before the 26th are paid under the old rate table. Those from April 26 to 30, under the new one. One week, two calculations.

It sounds manageable. And it is. But it's exactly the kind of step that gets missed when someone is busy, has four sites to enter, and the new tables aren't in the file yet. The wrong table keeps running for two more weeks, and nobody sees it until an employee wants an explanation on his stub.

If you have workers in multiple sectors at the same time — one light residential site and one institutional, for example — the increases aren't the same. Two tables from the same April 26.

Before processing May hours

A few things to sort out before running payroll:

Update your rates in all your tools. Excel file, payroll software, timesheet forms with printed rates: if the numbers aren't current as of April 26, payroll will be miscalculated. The official source is the CCQ's wage rate consultation tool.

Identify trades with wage catchups. If you have welders, divers, or other specialties with targeted adjustments, their rates may have changed differently from the general increase. Check trade by trade in the official table.

Split your pay period if it straddles the 26th. The cut line needs to be visible in your calculations — not absorbed into a weekly total.

Inform your foremen. Not a big explanation, just a reminder that for this particular week, timesheets need to allow you to separate hours from April 21–25 and April 26–30 if the change falls mid-week. A foreman who understands why he's filling in an extra box will do it. One who gets a modified form with no explanation will improvise.

What this means for bids already in progress

If you signed contracts last winter at 2025 rates, your labour cost increased on April 26. For what remains to execute on those projects, it eats into margin.

This isn't a surprise — it's the spring of construction. But it's useful to measure the impact now, before it disappears into general costs. Some projects have price revision clauses; others don't. This is the time to check.

When the update happens once for everyone

What we notice about contractors who navigate these rate changes without friction is rarely that they're better organized. It's that their system applies one change and all active sites follow automatically. No per-site file to correct, no rate hard-coded in a formula to track down across ten tabs.

That's how Heuro handles rate changes: one update, all active sites follow. The shingle contractor in Montérégie we describe in our case study manages 18 employees across multiple concurrent sites. When rates change, his office manager doesn't redo each site by hand.

Sign up for early access — or let's take a look at it together in twenty minutes if you want to see what it would mean for your team.

Key takeaways

New rates take effect April 26, 2026, in the May monthly report period
Light residential: +5.5%; all other sectors: +5.0%
Social benefits, contribution rates, and equipment allowances also change on the same date
Certain trades have a wage catchup on top of the annual increase — check your rate table trade by trade on the CCQ site
If your pay period straddles the 26th, hours on each side of the date are calculated separately