Le Blogue Broadbent


This is what income inequality looks like

Canada's highest paid CEOs make 171 times more than the average Canadian, a new report has found.
 
And by 1:18 pm on January 2, the country's 100 highest paid corporate bosses pocket what would take the average employee in Canada all of 2014 to earn, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' annual CEO survey shows.
 
The CEOs made an average of $7.96 million in 2012, compared to the average Canadian income of $46,634.
 
E. Hunter Harrison, head of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., led the pack, with a compensation package of $49.15 million. Harrison is followed by James Smith of Thomson Reuters Corp. ($18.8 million) and Talisman Energy Inc.'s John Manzoni ($18.67 million). (Only three of the top 100 paid CEOs in Canada are women.)
 
The gap between CEO compensation and employee pay is also widening, from 105 times more in 1998 to 171 times higher in 2012. That's because the average weekly wages and salaries have increased just 6% since 1998 (after adjusting for inflation), compared to a jump of 73% for the top 100 CEOs, the report, authored by CCPA research associate Hugh Mackenzie, shows.
 
Mackenzie also found no relationship between CEO compensation and corporate performance.
 
Photo: maunzy. Used under a Creative Commons BY-ND 2.0 licence.