Highest paid CEOs in Canada: Who are they?

Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs earned $13.2 million on common in 2023 from salaries, bonuses and different compensation, in accordance with the Canadian Centre for Coverage Options.

It was the third greatest yr for CEO pay for the reason that CCPA started monitoring the information in 2007, however a decline after 2021 and 2022 broke information.

“It is nonetheless nicely up from the place it has stood traditionally,” stated David Macdonald, report writer and senior economist on the CCPA.

Elements resulting in the decline included decrease earnings in 2023 and employees making wage positive factors after the latest bout of inflation, he stated.

The CCPA calculates that by 10:54 a.m. on Jan. 2, the typical CEO on the checklist had made $62,661 — the typical annual revenue for a Canadian employee.

The hole between CEOs and common employees has grown considerably, the report discovered. The 100 top-paid CEOs earned on common 210 instances greater than the typical employee did in 2023, whereas in 1998, they earned 104 instances extra.

The best-paid Canadian CEO in 2023 was Patrick Dovigi of GFL Environmental Inc., whose complete compensation was $68.5 million.

He was adopted by Joshua Kobza of Restaurant Manufacturers Worldwide Inc. at $39.1 million, then R.M. Kruger of Suncor Vitality Inc. at $36.8 million.

Salaries have been usually not the principle supply of CEOs’ complete compensation, with most of it coming as an alternative from different types of compensation like share-based awards and option-based awards.

“Salaries make up an ever smaller proportion of their total compensation,” stated Macdonald, including that typically an government will even take a wage of only a greenback — together with Tobi Lutke of Shopify and Murray Edwards of Canadian Pure Assets Ltd., each on 2023’s checklist.

The typical money bonus for these CEOs was $2.3 million in 2023, the CCPA stated, including that although in principle bonuses are supposed to be tied to the corporate’s efficiency, in actuality bonuses are inclined to rise no matter whether or not the corporate is having yr.

The three predominant sorts of non-salary compensation are direct share awards — the place an individual is paid in shares as an alternative of {dollars} — money bonuses, and inventory choices, stated Macdonald.

Many of the CEOs on the checklist are males, with simply three girls making the checklist — outnumbered by each CEOs named Scott (5) and Michael (4).

However the report is not all unhealthy information, famous Macdonald — for instance, employees’ pay went up considerably in 2023 because it caught as much as inflation, he stated. As nicely, these three girls on the checklist made on common greater than the Scotts and Michaels.

For the reason that CCPA has been monitoring CEO pay, it is also been monitoring coverage modifications that would assist slim the hole between executives and common employees.

One such change occurred in 2024, when the inclusion charge for taxing capital positive factors was elevated to greater than 66 per cent (in contrast with 100 per cent for employment revenue) for positive factors above $250,000 for people, although this in fact did not have an effect on CEOs in 2023.

Nonetheless, capital positive factors do not apply till shares are literally bought, famous Macdonald, that means the tax income from the change is potential — some individuals would possibly maintain on to these shares within the hopes the coverage will change sooner or later.

One other such change occurred in 2021, when the federal authorities capped the inventory choice tax deduction at $200,000 a yr.

“We’re seeing the affect on CEO pay” from that change, stated Macdonald. “Inventory choices as a method of being paid have been reduce in half for CEOs since 2021.”

As a substitute, there is a “fairly decisive shift” towards direct share awards, he stated.

“It was once that the inventory choices … have been, from a tax perspective, a greater method to be paid.”

This yr’s report additionally investigated the concept corporations want to supply excessive compensation to draw prime CEOs.

“In the true world, it is a way more mundane clarification,” stated Macdonald.

He stated in truth, greater than three-quarters of the CEOs on the checklist received the job from inside the firm, working at their corporations for a median of 21 years.

This “actually reveals the chapter of this concept that these insane pay ranges are about competitors,” stated Macdonald.

The report recommends a “wealth tax” on Canadians price greater than $10 million, which it says may increase $32 billion a yr. This can be a far more direct strategy than addressing inventory choices or capital positive factors, stated Macdonald.

The report additionally recommends increased prime marginal tax brackets.

“Traditionally talking, Canada’s marginal tax charge for the richest is low,” the report stated, with the highest brackets inside the 70 per cent vary within the postwar years, in contrast with roughly 50 per cent now.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 2, 2025.