A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reveals that the pay gap between top Canadian CEOs and average workers is wider than ever. In 2024, the highest-paid executives earned a record-breaking average of $16.2 million each. Meanwhile, the typical Canadian worker made just $65,548.
This means the top 100 CEOs earned 248 times more than the average employee last year, a sharp rise from a ratio of 170 to 1 in 2008 and 104 to 1 in the late 1990s. David Macdonald, the senior economist who authored the report, explained that CEO pay has grown five times larger compared to worker pay over the past 40 years.
To make it onto the list of the highest-paid 100 CEOs, an executive needed to earn at least $7.2 million in 2024. This threshold has more than doubled since the late 2000s when $3 million was enough.
The report breaks down CEO earnings to an hourly rate, showing that these top executives make about $7,812 an hour or $130 every minute of the workday. It only takes a little over eight working hours for one of these CEOs to earn what an average worker makes in an entire year. By 9:23 a.m. on January 2, the highest-paid CEOs have already matched the yearly pay of regular employees.
At the very top, Shopify’s CEO earned an astonishing $205.5 million in 2024, the highest compensation ever recorded in Canada.
While average worker pay increased by 15% from 2020 to 2024, rising from $57,024 to $65,548, CEO pay jumped 49% in the same period. However, this pay hike for workers has not kept up with inflation, which rose by 18%. This means many workers effectively faced a pay cut when factoring in rising prices. Essential goods like pasta, beef, and eggs saw price increases of 35% to 47%, while housing costs and rent climbed between 23% and 29%, adding pressure to household budgets.
The report links the surge in CEO pay to rising corporate profits. Canadian companies’ pre-tax profits climbed from about $400 billion before the pandemic to $630 billion in 2024. These profits often form the basis for CEO bonuses. In fact, in 2024, more than 84% of CEO pay came from bonuses, stock options, and share awards—a record high. Base salaries have actually fallen since 2017 to levels seen a decade ago.
Even as some companies struggled financially during the COVID-19 downturn in 2020, many still paid out bonuses by adjusting targets or using government support, keeping executive bonuses intact. Macdonald suggests this setup means CEOs usually win big regardless of company performance—the bonuses mostly go up, never down.
The report also sheds light on gender inequality among top executives. Only five out of the 100 highest-paid CEOs in 2024 were women, making up just 5% of the group, despite women representing 47% of the overall workforce. These women CEOs earned about 73% of what their male peers took home, highlighting continued pay gaps.
Overall, the findings paint a clear picture: the gap between CEO pay and typical worker earnings in Canada is growing rapidly, far outpacing rises in inflation and cost of living. This has important implications for fairness and income inequality as many Canadians struggle with rising expenses while executives receive ever-larger pay packages.