Canadian CEOs have already earned more than the average Canadian will this year
Posted Jan 2, 2018 9:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – A policy think tank says Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs have already earned more than the average Canadian worker will make for all of this year.
The 11th annual report on CEO compensation by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the average CEO will have earned nearly $50,000 by 10:57 a.m. ET Tuesday, down from mid-afternoon when it first started studying the issue.
Its latest report titled “Climbing up and Kicking Down” says the country’s top CEOs now make, on average, $10.4-million a year, or 209 times the average income of $49,738.
That’s up from 193 times more in 2015.
The report suggests that while the idea of a $15 per hour minimum wage has faced debate across Canada, rising CEO wages have gone largely unchecked.
It concludes it isn’t likely that any one measure will curtail the overall growth in CEO compensation and decrease the record-high income gap between Canada’s top executives and the average worker.
But it says Ottawa could consider more comprehensive amendments to the Income Tax Act and more broadly eliminate the tax preference that encourages companies to pay their executives in stock and stock derivatives rather than regular dollars.
