CEO pay increased at twice the rate of average Canadian since 2008

WHATFG

Well-Known Member
Canada's top-paid CEOs saw their compensation climb at double the rate of the average Canadian between the depths of the recession and 2013, a new study has found.
The country's 100 highest remunerated chief executive officers pulled down an average of $9.2 million in 2013, about 25 per cent more than the $7.35 million they amassed in 2008, said an analysis released Thursday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
By comparison, the average Canadian income in 2013 was $47,358, about 12 per cent more than the 2008 level.
"It's a sort of a highly visible manifestation of growing income inequality in Canada," said the study's author, Hugh Mackenzie, who crunched the numbers on the CEOs of 240 publicly listed Canadian corporations on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
"I just don't think it's sustainable. I think that sooner or later public concern about income inequality is going to start to matter politically and something will have to happen."
The last time compensation for the top 100 corporate chiefs reached such a height was 2007 — the year before the recession — when it peaked at an average of $10 million, said the report titled "Glory Days: CEO Pay in Canada Soaring to Pre-Recession Highs."
The think-tank's annual review of CEO pay comes amid much political debate over Canada's income gap and the economic health of the middle class. Federal politicians have already started sharpening their pitches on these issues ahead of October's national election.
The CEO calculations include salaries as well as earnings from bonuses, share grants and stock options.
By that measure, Gerald Schwartz of the private equity company Onex Corp. earned the most of any of the CEOs, pulling in $87.9 million for 2013. The sum included $61.4 million in options and a $25.2-million bonus.
Next up was Nadir Mohamed of Rogers Communication Inc., who made $26.8 million, followed by Michael Wilson of the fertilizer producer Agrium Inc. at $23.8 million. Both men retired from their respective companies in 2013 and received large one-time payments related to their departures.
Mackenzie acknowledged that particularly large sums, like the one awarded to Schwartz, push the average upwards, but he noted that even the compensation of the 100th-ranked CEO on the list was about 30 per cent higher in 2013 compared with 2008.
In 2013, Thomas Simons of Canadian Energy Services & Technology Corp., who took home just over $4.1 million in compensation, earned the least on the Top 100 list.
Looking back even further, the study found the average 1998 compensation for the Top 100 CEO earners was 105 times more than the average Canadian's income. In 2013, it said the top CEOs raked in about 195 times more than the average Canadian's pay.
The report found the compensation divide even wider for women: the average CEO in the Top 100 made 237 times the income of the average woman in 2013.
"Given the fact that the stakes and the responsibilities of these corporate leaders really haven't changed that much, one has to look a little bit more closely at what it is that's driving the premium pay for these corporate decision-makers to be so much greater now than it was 15, 20, 25 years ago," Mackenzie said.
The problem with stock options
In addition, the risks of compensating CEOs with large amounts of stock options could lead corporate bosses to focus on short-term benefits rather than the long-term well-being of their company, he said.
His report recommends changes to the tax system to address what it calls the "problem of runaway CEO pay."
Mackenzie said the government could limit how much of a CEO's salary a company can deduct from its taxes.
The review also offers other suggestions including: the introduction of a more steeply graduated tax system and putting an end to the treatment of stock options as a capital gain, so they're no longer taxed at half the rate of ordinary income.
But even with so much attention paid to Canada's income gap, recently released data suggested the disparity shrunk somewhat between the country's biggest income earners and the other 99 per cent after the 2008-09 recession.
A November report by Statistics Canada found the highest-earning Canadians — the so-called top one per cent — saw their share of the country's overall income fall to 10.3 per cent in 2012. The drop followed a peak of 12.1 per cent six years earlier.
The agency said the six-year period marked the first "prolonged" stretch in 30 years when the income share of earners in the lower levels stabilized or grew.
To qualify for the one per cent club, the Statistics Canada study said an individual had to earn at least $215,700 in 2012 — a sum reached by 261,365 people who filed taxes that year.
 
I hope we as Canadians stand up to this problem of income equality. No way in fuck should all these CEO be making millions and getting tax breaks and who needs to get paid 155 times more money than the average person. Then we elect one of these 1% to represent us average Canadians and they line there own pockets and the cycle continues. This kind of bs needs to end.

Peace
 
Welcome to our nightmare down here in the states. I don't mind people making a lot of money as long as it's fair... we know too well we're all being fucked and not kissed afterwards. This is a dangerous situation for both of our countries.
 
Anyone who can create and maintain 8800 good jobs.

True but to the contrary these people didn't create jobs old money did. The people that are CEOs of multimillion and multibillion dollar industries were born as millionaires already. This is predetermined to keep the vast fortunes in the hands of the top 1%ers. Thus leaving all the rest of the middle and lower class people hoping/dreaming we get a chance at the illusion of the American Canadian dream.

Peace
 
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This is exactly the problem with a so called free society.
There is no limit to the amount of greed vs need.
No one person deserves to make that much money.
Regardless how many people you employ or how big you have grown your business.
The argument of someone employing 8800 people just doesnt work for me when the ceo probably does less work than any one of the 8800.
The line between super rich and poverty stricken is eventually going to cause people to say enough is enough and those rich people will be easy targets.
 
I dont think its really an exception thats part of the problem.
How much money does one person need?
I watched a tv doc yrs ago about these super elite.
Bill gates is worth 50 billion. But still gets up at 7 am to go to work or else his stocks will drop and he will lose half his money....and
25 billion aint enough lol
Its crazy.
I look at it this way.
If all the world cash were a large pie ten people shouldnt be able to keep and eat 90% of it while watching everyone else starve.
Guilt should be enough but sadly its not the people are going to have to stand up
 
This is exactly the problem with a so called free society.
There is no limit to the amount of greed vs need.
No one person deserves to make that much money.
Regardless how many people you employ or how big you have grown your business.
The argument of someone employing 8800 people just doesnt work for me when the ceo probably does less work than any one of the 8800.
The line between super rich and poverty stricken is eventually going to cause people to say enough is enough and those rich people will be easy targets.
if it were not for this CEO and owner, there would be no work for the 7000 people he employs.
A person who starts with nothing and grows from HARD WORK deserves every penny they make. and TAXES they pay along with that.
Can't see it any other way.

ps.... you'd only need to make a very very small piece (.000000000001) of that pie to be happy. Maybe less eh ;)
Just sayin
 
if it were not for this CEO and owner, there would be no work for the 7000 people he employs.
A person who starts with nothing and grows from HARD WORK deserves every penny they make. and TAXES they pay along with that.
Can't see it any other way.

ps.... you'd only need to make a very very small piece (.000000000001) of that pie to be happy. Maybe less eh ;)
Just sayin
Wrong
Those 7000 people would work somewhere else.
Employment works both ways.
U said he came here as in not a canadian right.
Thats what i meant as part o the problem.
Im a 6th generation canadian. Where can i go and build a business?
Our entire workforce has become saturated by people from other countries willing to work for peanuts while living 50 deep in a house.
I dont know how much pie i personally need but ive given away more money than there currently is in my bank account.

Im sure i am the main reason i am in my own position but im ok with it.
 
this article is leaving out some key information. how are these ceo's company's doing? are they making more money? less money? if the companies are making more money then obviously the ceo is going to profit more as well. but regardless, it is their money and the amount they make has nothing to do with the average canadian's salary. there is no such thing as income equality, i've never even heard of such an absurd term before. some people make more than others and that is the way things will be forever.

if you're unhappy with how much you make, do something about it. go to school, get higher certifications in your field or a field you're interested in. don't bitch about people making millions if you're unhappy with yourself...
 
True but to the contrary these people didn't create jobs old money did. The people that are CEOs of multimillion and multibillion dollar industries were born as millionaires already. This is predetermined to keep the vast fortunes in the hands of the top 1%ers. Thus leaving all the rest of the middle and lower class people hoping/dreaming we get a chance at the illusion of the American Canadian dream.

Peace

Correct and I completely agree; unless they BUILT that company, they're just managers and don't deserve such stupid paychecks. It's frankly criminal- except that they've had the laws changed to remove obstacles to their influence peddling...
 
I dont think its really an exception thats part of the problem.
How much money does one person need?
I watched a tv doc yrs ago about these super elite.
Bill gates is worth 50 billion. But still gets up at 7 am to go to work or else his stocks will drop and he will lose half his money....and
25 billion aint enough lol
Its crazy.
I look at it this way.
If all the world cash were a large pie ten people shouldnt be able to keep and eat 90% of it while watching everyone else starve.
Guilt should be enough but sadly its not the people are going to have to stand up

We ARE the ninety percent, after all. They can't ignore us all if we decide we will not be ignored.
 
I wasn't bitching because I'm unhappy...I live quite comfortably because I worked hard when I could and my spouse works hard now. I just don't think that these rich people should get away with not paying a proportionate amount of tax...a lot of it is sheltered and then the company gets a write off for paying them so much. If I double dipped as much as corporate Canada does, my ass would be thrown in jail.
 
this article is leaving out some key information. how are these ceo's company's doing? are they making more money? less money? if the companies are making more money then obviously the ceo is going to profit more as well. but regardless, it is their money and the amount they make has nothing to do with the average canadian's salary. there is no such thing as income equality, i've never even heard of such an absurd term before. some people make more than others and that is the way things will be forever.

if you're unhappy with how much you make, do something about it. go to school, get higher certifications in your field or a field you're interested in. don't bitch about people making millions if you're unhappy with yourself...
I totally agree but I am not talking the guy who started his own company worked his ass off and sold it for millions Or the CEO managers that are making $250,000 to $1 000 0000 I'm talking about the super rich the ones that are in true power government and huge corporations/ banks. They make the rules (in there favour of course)the rest of us have to play by. IMO thus
Oh and sorry the term I was looking for is economic inequality which is a state of affairs were wealth or income are distributed unequally amoung individuals in a group or country. After all 10% of the population owning 90% of the wealth....


Peace
 
Nope :)
....but that's another. I don't know Mr S personally, although I have done work for him in the passed many times.. lol

You people have to figure out what is what here. Lots of MIXING to what's being yapped about.

Look.
All CEO/owners are not all like you say.
SOME....very very few mind you, actually do their best to see that these HUGE ORGANIZATION run as smoothly as possible.

IF the guy was such the person that you are making them out to be and had NOTHING to do with the company in the first place.... well... sure.
..but its a popularity contest at that point as the people who started the biz have been dead for generations in many cases !
:)
 
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