Big Pay Hikes at the Top

Incomes rise 22 per cent for Canada’s top CEOs.

Canada's working people may be worried about losing their jobs - if they haven't already done so. Unionized workers still on the job are often being asked to accept concessions. Part-time workers are finding they're receiving fewer hours of work.

None of this is hurting the high flying life styles of Canada's best paid 100 CEOs who got a record 22 per cent average pay hike in 2007. Canada’s 100 best paid CEOs tallied one billion in average total earnings – a historical first, according to a report on CEO pay by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

"At that rate of pay, Canada’s richest CEOs pocket the average Canadian wage of $40,237 by 9:04 a.m. January 2 – before most Canadians have booted up their computer for another year of work," says CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie.

Among the report's findings was that the 100 highest paid CEOs of Canadian publicly traded corporations received an average of $10,408,054 in total compensation in 2007. Many of the top 100 include Canada's big bank CEOs, who recently received billions in federal government bailout money to purchase mortgage loans, and energy CEOs who, until recently, were surfing the big wave of crude oil price increases.

Average CEO pay for the top 100 was up 22 per cent from its $8.5 million average in 2006. In contrast, average Canadian earnings rose by only 3.2 per cent - the best increase in the past five years, but a small fraction of the CEOs' pay hike and barely keeping up with inflation.

"Compared with ordinary Canadians, whose wages have been stagnant for 30 years, Canada’s economic downturn promises to hit the masses far harder than the best paid 100 CEOs," Mackenzie says. "They have enjoyed a decade of record pay hikes and will land on a softer cushion if they stumble from their lofty heights in the New Year."