A new report shows CEO pay in Canada broke records in 2022 the country’s 100 highest paid CEOs were paid an average of $4.9 million that year that’s according to the Canadian Center for policy Alternatives now that amount is up from 14.3 million in 2021 that works out to
More than $7,100 an hour which is 246 times more than what the average Canadian worker makes the report says that the average worker saw their pay RIS 3% in 2022 while CEO pay jumped 4.4% let’s bring in David McDonald senior Economist at the Canadian Center for policy alternatives to dig through
These numbers David my goodness what a way to start the new year but we generally have this conversation it feels every single year you’re talking about CEO pay going up and up and up uh so talk to us a little bit about these numbers this in 2022 and how much of a
Surprise it is or isn’t well this is really a story about inflation and has been for the last couple years uh inflation has been great for corporate profits we’ve seen corporate uh profit margins way out of historic Norms in 2021 and in 2022 now how this relates to CEOs is that they
Are paid primarily on bonuses so 84% of their total pay is bonus pay only 8% comes from a salary so very different from how most Canadians are paid and so when corporate profits go through the roof B bonuses go through the roof uh and that’s why we’re seeing this record
Pay in 2021 and again this year in 2022 so you really only had to look at corporate profit data which we’ve had for some time to see that this was going to be probably a record year if not a very high year for CEO compensation and
It was a record year now this has been a very contentious issue of course given that uh there are so many Canadians across the country who are struggling right now those who do not make CEO pay given you know the uh the cost of living crisis that we’re working through that
We have been working through postco as well uh so talk to us about you know when it comes to CEO salaries uh give us a bit more of a breakdown a lot of people might be wondering is this amount of pay Justified yeah what’s interesting about
This uh all-time high in dollar terms is that it’s also an all-time high in terms of the ratio of what CEOs make to average workers so CEOs are just seeing bigger pay increases over time than average workers are uh this year we’re closing in on 250 times uh CEOs making
To average workers when we started tracking this in 2008 it was 150 times in the 90s it was 100 times in the 1980s it was about 50 times so the Gap is growing substantially over time uh it’s growing because of these bonuses that uh you talked about and certainly inflation
Very difficult for consumers in terms of trying to claw back uh this in increase in prices on the wages front they have been reasonably successful in 2023 uh but CEOs are being paid uh is if you know on the one side CEOs say well look this inflation thing wasn’t our fault
We’re just covering our costs uh that’s not actually born out in the data given how much more profits have gone up but on the other side they’re paid as if every dime of this increase in prices is absolutely their fault and they should be paid accordingly and so that’s one of
The reasons why we’re seeing this record amount of pay now this data is from 2022 2023 profit margins uh were more in the historic ranges that doesn’t mean that CEO pay will actually go down next year uh as we saw in 2020 just because times are bad often bonus formulas are just
Changed after the fact to ensure that CEOs are insulated from the bad news even if their bonuses Skyrocket in good times and looking also at this list I mean of the top 100 only four are women uh I would also ask you you know just how diverse and other ways this list
Might be in the sea Suite when it comes to those who are the top paid cosos in this country uh but we I mean and that that is definitely another conversation uh for another time because we are out of time here but we thank you so much for yours David McDonald senior
Economist at the Canadian Center for policy alternatives
Senior Economist David MacDonald discusses why 2022 saw record compensation for CEO’s and why it continues to grow.
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GREED is insatiable. This IS Class War and the poor and working classes better wake the Hell up and fight back, or soon we'll ALL be fighting over the very small scraps thrown off the wealthiest's golden tables.
Every time that Jagmeet Singh, Krista Freeland, and Justin Trudeau run budget deficits to fund their unsustainable social programs, inflation rises and money gets funneled to big corporations who have big fat juicy government contracts. We need to start funding social programs using budget surpluses!!