CCPA New Release - Jan 2, 2022

No New Year’s hangover for top CEOs

January 2, 2022 | National Office | Topic(s): Employment & labour,
Inequality & poverty | Publication Type: Press Release | Research Desk:
Inequality Project

TORONTO - By 12:13 pm on New Year's Day, while many Canadians were still
nursing a hangover, Canada"s 100 highest paid CEOs had already pocketed what
will take minimum wage workers the rest of 2007 to earn.

The clock keeps ticking. By 9:46 am Jan. 2, as most Canadians begin
another year of labour, Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs will have reaped, on
average, $38,010 in pay.

"That equals the average annual earnings of workers in Canada,” says
Hugh Mackenzie, research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives (CCPA). “And it will take them all of 2007 to earn it.”

By the time Canadians tune into the 6:00 news Jan. 2, Canada’s 100
highest paid CEOs will have pocketed nearly $70,000. The highest paid
CEO will have pocketed more than $570,000.

“If time is money, are Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs really worth more in a
day than most Canadian workers are in a year?” asks Mackenzie.

“People wonder what the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us
looks like. This provides us with a pretty good snapshot of how unevenly the
Canadian workforce is valued these days.”