By the Numbers: CEO Pay and the Rest of Us

Ottawa – January 8, 2014 – According to an annual review by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), by noon on Jan. 2, the average top paid Canadian CEO will have been earned as much as the average full-time worker's yearly income.

The average top CEO’s compensation amounted to more than $30,600 per day.

Minimum wage workers who worked 40 hours a week earned an average of $20,989 per year in 2012.

The average compensation among Canada's top 100 CEOs was $7.96 million in 2012.

The average annual Canadian worker's salary was $46,634 in 2012.

The CEO pay for Canadian public companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange has ballooned by 73 per cent between 1998 and 2012.

The average Canadian full-time worker's annual salary has only grown by 6 per cent during this period.

The country's top 100 highest-paid CEOs made 171 times more than the average Canadian worker (a jump from 105 times in 1998), and 194 times the average Canadian woman.

The highest paid executive in Canada was the head of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Hunter Harrison, who was paid $49.1 million in salary, stock options and bonuses in 2012.

The lowest-paid CEO on the top 100 list was Lino A. Saputo, of Montreal-based dairy Saputo Inc., who earned $3.85 million.

Canada’s Top Ranked 100 CEOs: Pay Packets, 2012
(Based on averages)

Total compensation: $7.96 million.

Base salary: $1,008,280.

Cash bonuses: $1.73 million.

Grants of company shares: $2.24 million.

Stock options: $1.69 million (conservatively valued).

Other compensation, including ‘perqs’: $754,000.

Pension compensation value increase: $533,000.

Source: CCPA: All in a Day’s work? – CEO Pay in Canada