Record-High CEO Pay in Canada Deepens Gap with Average Workers’ Earnings

In its recent report, Living the High Life: A Record-Breaking Year for CEO Pay in Canada, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reveals that pay for Canada’s 100 top-earning CEOs climbed to record levels in 2024, averaging $16.2 million and further accelerating the growing gap between executive compensation and what most workers earn. 

The CCPA reports that by 9:23 a.m. on January 2, Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs had already made what the average worker will make all year, with their annual compensation now averaging 248 times more than that of the typical Canadian worker.  

Authored by Senior Economist David MacDonald, the report underscores the rapid growth of this pay gap, which increased from 104 times the average worker’s earnings in the late 1990s to 170 times in 2008, and has continued to widen significantly in the years since.

Read the full report here.