Banner year for Canada's CEOs

In 1995, the Globe and Mail reported the average total compensation of the 50 highest paid executives in Canada at $2.66 million, which worked out to just over 85 times the pay of the average worker.2 Just three years later in 1998, the average of the top 100 CEOs received total com- pensation at a rate of 104 times that of the average worker. [...] The chart above shows the percentage change in the total compensation of Can- ada’s highest paid 100 CEOs, after adjusting for inflation, compared with the infla- tion-adjusted change in average weekly wages and salaries and the average Canadian minimum wage. [...] The top 25 CEOs pocket the equivalent of the total in- come of Nunavut. [...] The data include salary, annual bonuses, perquisites reported as “other compensation”, payouts during the year from long-term incentive plans, net proceeds of stock options exercised during the year and the value of stock grants (both restricted and unrestricted) during the year. [...] Accordingly, we have adopted the generally ac- cepted approach used, among others, in the summaries produced by the Globe and Mail and the National Post, in presenting currentyear income realized regardless of the year of accrual.