A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reveals a stark reality about CEO compensation in Canada, focusing on the top executives in this nation.

The findings shed light on the stark income disparity between the average worker and the country’s highest-paid CEOs.

As the clock struck midnight on January 1, the average CEO began accumulating a staggering $7,162 per hour. By 9:27 a.m. on January 2, 2023, the top 100 CEOs in Canada have already raked in an average of $60,600 – an amount equivalent to what an average Canadian worker earns in an entire year of hard work.

While the average Canadian grapples with the challenges of inflation, the top echelons of corporate Canada are leveraging it to set unprecedented records. The surge in inflation becomes an opportune moment for the country’s 100 highest-paid CEOs to escalate prices, resulting in record-breaking profit margins. The report from CCPA underscores how these inflated profit margins translate into new all-time highs across various metrics used to monitor the compensation packages of the top CEOs.

The full report can be found on the CCPA website.

Examining the data from 2022, the most recent year available, reveals a staggering average compensation of $14.9 million for Canada’s top 100 CEOs. This figure marks an all-time high, surpassing the previous record of $14.3 million set in the preceding year. The exponential increase is noteworthy, especially when compared to the $7.4 million CEOs earned in 2008, the initial year the CCPA began publishing this dataset.

As the income gap widens, this report calls attention to the disparity between the highest earners and the average Canadian worker. While CEOs continue to see remarkable increases in compensation, the broader population faces the challenges of a persistent inflationary environment.