The chasm between the pay of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and the average Canadian worker is widening.
Even during the global pandemic, the highest-paid CEOs in Canada have already earned more in 2021 than the average Canadian worker will earn all year, according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, an Ottawa-based think-tank.
By tabulating publicly available data from companies that trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculated that, in 2019, the average total compensation for the 100 best-paid CEOs in Canada was $10.8 million. In contrast, the average annual salary for a Canadian worker that year was $53,482, according to Statistics Canada.
At those rates, a top Canadian CEO earned the entire annual salary of a typical worker at their company by 11:17 a.m. on January 4 this year.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives used 2019 data because full numbers for 2020 won't be available until the spring. But early estimates show that roughly half of top-paid CEOs will increase their compensation levels for last year due to the stock market boom that took place during the pandemic.
The think-tank also calculated that more than a third of the CEOs on the highest-paid list work for companies that signed up for Ottawa’s wage subsidy program that, at one point, picked up the tab for up to 75% of a worker's salary.
Based on regulatory data, the top-paid CEO of a Canadian company is Jose Cil, CEO of Restaurant Brands (TSX:QSR), which owns Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeye's and other fast food chains. Cil's total compensation was more than $27 million in 2019, which came mostly in the form of stocks on top of his base salary of just over $1 million.
