I got tired of explaining this individually to everyone so I figured I’d make a page walking everyone through this.
Please follow the pictures to login to ESS and view your paystub.

Logging In

Go to the website: https://ess.sobeys.com

Type your employee number (sweep log code) into the username box, and your password into the password box.
If this is your first time logging into the system your password is: S + the last 3 digits of your SIN + your birth year.
Example: if your SIN is 123 456 789 and you were born in 1990, your initial password will be S7891990
If it is your first time logging in you will need to change your password to something different.

Note that the password requirements are as follows:

Minimum 6 characters
Maximum 8 characters (really sobeys…. way to be secure….)
Needs at least 1 alpha and 1 numeric character.

If you have forgotten your password please click here for a guide on how to reset it.

Once logged in you will be brought to the following page.
For paystubs, click “View My Pay Statements” and click here to continue the guide.
For Tax Forms (T4’s) click “My Pay & Benefits” and click here to continue the guide.

Pay Stubs

After clicking “View My Pay Statements” you will be brought to the following page.
You will need to select the date range that you would like to view the pay stub for. The most recent pay range is always selected by default.
Select the range you want and click “View”.

Your pay stub will appear below and look similar to the one pictured below. I have removed the personal information from mine but I will go over the meaning of all the rows.

Reg Hrs – Regular hours, your pay rate x the hours you have worked at 1.0x rate.
VarPay – Yearly bonus, not everyone qualifies, see you manager for qualification details.
NghtPrem – Night premium pay, $1.00 bonus for every hour worked outside of normal business hours (7am-10pm). Example, if you work 5a-130p you will get 2x$1.00 of night premium.
OT 1.5x – Overtime pay at 1.5x
PTVAC – Payment for used vacation hours, paid at your current hourly rate.
StatPaid – Stat holiday pay, for part-time employees this will be an average of your shifts, but will never exceed 8hrs per stat. You get this whether you work the stat or not. Note that there are qualification requirements for stat pay, talk to your manager for more details.
StPd1.5x – Stat holiday pay for any shifts worked on stat holidays. Everyone who works on stats gets this, regardless of how often you work.
Subtotal – Self explanatory

Insuranc – Employee credit for benefits.
Subtotal – Self explanatory

Subtotal – Self explanatory

Gross Earnings – Your total earnings for this pay period, before any deductions.
Less: Deductions – Tax and other deductions for this pay period.
Misc. Ded/Refund – Payroll error corrections for this pay period.

EETotTax – Income tax paid
EE CPP – CPP paid
EE EI – EI paid

Social – Social fund contributions, if applicable.
Health – Additional health insurance coverage selected, employee portion.
Dental – Additional dental insurance coverage selected, employee portion.
Subtotal – Self explanatory

NET PAY – Your total pay, after all deductions, for this pay period.

BANK TRANSFER AMOUNT – Almost always the same as your NET PAY.

Tax Forms (T4’s)

Yes, you have to do your taxes, it doesn’t matter if you made $0.50 or $50,000, if your 12 or 18 or 75, you MUST file your taxes if you earned income. I was shocked at how many people didn’t know this.
If you are late doing your taxes, and you owe money, you WILL be fined and WILL be charged interest. It just makes it worse if you delay, so file your taxes on time.

Turbotax has a free option for online returns, IMO the best option. Their paid plans are pretty cheap too if you need more complex things.
Here’s a link to their online plans: https://turbotax.intuit.ca/personal-tax-software/online-tax-software.jsp
Here’s a link to their tax guide: https://turbotax.intuit.ca/tax-software/how-to-file-taxes.jsp

After clicking “My Pay & Benefits” you will be brought to the following page.
Click “View and Print Tax Forms”.

After clicking “View and Print Tax Forms” you will be brought to the following page.
By default, the most recent year is selected, you may edit the “Tax Year” box to select a different year. Hit display to refresh the page below.

Below the area pictured below there will be an embedded PDF of your T4. If you hover your mouse inside the PDF area a little bar will pop up, pictured below.

Click the little printer icon if you need to print your T4, most of the time this is not needed, don’t waste paper if you don’t have to. The down arrow will download the form in PDF format to your computer.

Password Resets

Eventually, you will probably forget your password. To reset it click the “Reset my password” link on the login screen.

You will be brought to the following page.
The easiest way to reset your password is to your initial one. To do that do NOT enter an email address in the box, leave it blank.
It may ask you a security question, answer it, if you don’t know the answer, you will need to contact IT at: 1-877-425-1845
Your password will be reset to the default (S + the last 3 digits of your SIN + your birth year) and you can login.

Footnote

This information may change at any time, I will try to update this page if that happens. I make no guarantee as to the accuracy of the information on this page, the pay stub line descriptions are from my observations and common sense.