Record of Employment in Canada

A Record of Employment (ROE) is a Canadian government form issued when an employee stops working or has an interruption of earnings. Service Canada uses it to determine EI eligibility. If you use an EOR, the EOR handles ROE issuance as the registered employer — you do not file anything with Service Canada yourself.

ROE vs EOR: Different things. ROE (Record of Employment) is a specific Canadian payroll document. EOR (Employer of Record) is a service model where a third party becomes the registered employer.

When an ROE must be issued

An ROE is required whenever an employee has an interruption of earnings:

Trigger	What it means
End of employment	Termination, resignation, end of contract
Unpaid leave	Seven or more consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings
Parental or pregnancy leave	Employee begins mat/pat leave
Layoff	Temporary or permanent
Salary reduction	Earnings drop below 60% of normal weekly salary due to illness, injury, or other qualifying reason

The 60% threshold covers situations where an employee’s hours or pay are reduced significantly but they are not terminated or on formal leave. Qualifying reasons include illness, injury, quarantine, pregnancy, parental obligations, and compassionate care. The 60% is calculated against the employee’s normal weekly insurable earnings — not annual salary or a theoretical cap. If an employee normally earns CAD 1,500/week and pay drops to CAD 800/week due to reduced hours from illness, the 53% reduction triggers the ROE even though employment continues. The ROE then establishes the record Service Canada uses to assess EI sickness benefit eligibility.

Payroll contributions that link to the ROE

The ROE records insurable earnings and insurable hours — the same figures used to calculate EI premiums throughout employment.

The 2026 employee EI premium rate is 1.66% on insurable earnings up to the MIE of CAD 68,900. The employer pays 1.4x that (2.324%), capping at roughly CAD 1,601 per employee per year. Remitted to CRA each payroll cycle and reported on the year-end T4.

The ROE reports insurable hours and earnings by pay period for the most recent 52 weeks. Service Canada uses this to calculate the employee’s benefit rate and entitlement period. Errors in payroll records flow directly into the ROE and can delay or reduce EI benefits.

Filing deadlines

Trigger	Submission method	Deadline
End of employment or pay period	Electronic (ROE Web)	5 calendar days after end of pay period in which interruption occurred
End of employment or pay period	Paper (rare)	5 calendar days after end of pay period
Seven-day unpaid leave	Electronic (ROE Web)	5 calendar days after the 7th consecutive day without work or insurable earnings
Seven-day unpaid leave	Paper	5 calendar days after the 7th consecutive day
Salary below 60% of normal	Electronic or paper	5 calendar days after the pay period in which earnings dropped below 60%

The deadline is counted from the end of the relevant pay period, not from the last day of work — this distinction matters for bi-weekly payroll cycles where the last day of work and the end of the pay period may be several days apart.

ROE submission methods

Service Canada accepts ROEs through three channels:

Method	Who uses it	Notes
ROE Web	Most employers and EOR vendors	Online portal at canada.ca; mandatory for employers filing 5+ ROEs per year
Bulk XML transfer	Large payroll providers, EOR platforms	Must use Service Canada-certified XML format; requires pre-approval from Service Canada
Paper (Form INS5223)	Very small employers without payroll software	Mailed or hand-delivered; increasingly rare; delays employee EI access by days

Most EOR vendors use ROE Web or bulk XML. Paper ROEs are rare in professional EOR contexts and delay employee access to benefits since they must be physically received and processed.

How an EOR handles ROE

When you use a Canadian EOR, the EOR holds the CRA Business Number and payroll program account. The ROE must be issued by whoever paid the insurable earnings, so the EOR handles this:

1. The EOR’s payroll system detects the interruption of earnings (termination, leave, earnings reduction)
2. The EOR files the ROE electronically through ROE Web or bulk XML within the deadline
3. The employee uses the ROE number to apply for EI through My Service Canada Account
4. You do not register with Service Canada, obtain a payroll account, or file anything

The ROE contains: the employer’s name and Business Number, the employee’s SIN, first and last day worked, insurable hours in the reference period, insurable earnings by pay period (up to 53 periods), and the reason for separation (one of 16 standardized codes, from A for “shortage of work” to P for “change of payroll frequency”). The EOR populates this from payroll records.

All four EOR vendors serving Canada (Plane, Boundless, Globalization Partners, Safeguard Global) cover ROE issuance as a legal obligation of the registered employer. None specifically list it on their Canada pages, but it is included by default. Confirm ROE handling with your vendor before the engagement starts.

Quebec: QPIP and the ROE

Quebec employees draw parental and maternity benefits from QPIP (Quebec Parental Insurance Plan), not federal EI. The ROE is still a federal form filed with Service Canada — the federal system shares ROE data with Revenu Quebec to administer QPIP claims.

The ROE for a Quebec employee includes a separate QPIP-insurable earnings field. QPIP has a higher maximum insurable earnings ceiling than federal EI (CAD 103,000 vs. CAD 68,900 in 2026), so an employee earning CAD 90,000 has all CAD 90,000 subject to QPIP premiums while EI insurable earnings are capped at CAD 68,900. The EOR must track both ceilings throughout the year and report both figures correctly on the ROE.

Quebec employees also receive an RL-1 slip (Releve 1) at year-end — Quebec’s provincial equivalent of the T4, filed with Revenu Quebec rather than CRA. A Quebec-capable EOR issues both the T4 and the RL-1, and remits to both CRA and Revenu Quebec. Confirm RL-1 issuance and dual-ceiling QPIP support with any vendor before hiring in Quebec.

Related guides

• Best EOR vendors in Canada
• Hire in Canada without an entity
• EOR vs entity in Canada

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