Canada’s richest CEOs saw their second-best year during COVID

In 2020, the highest-paid 100 CEOs at publicly traded companies earned an average of $10.9 million.

Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs had their second-best year ever in 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic left this country in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

“Despite the pandemic being a pretty bad year for most Canadians, particularly on the unemployment front, it wasn’t really that bad for Canada’s richest CEOs,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist at The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Macdonald authored a report released Tuesday examining how much the top 100 best-paid CEOs of publicly traded companies earned in 2020. The report claimed that by noon on Tuesday, the average CEO of these companies would have already earned what the average Canadian worker will make all year.

In 2020, as many Canadians had hours cut or lost their jobs completely during repeated lockdowns and forced closures, the highest-paid 100 CEOs at publicly traded companies earned an average of $10.9 million.

That was down from the record high of $11.8 million in 2018, but an increase of $95,000 compared with 2019.

Macdonald said that CEOs receiving the second-highest pay on record is “quite an achievement” given that the pandemic was quite damaging to many of the companies they were running.

More than 82 per cent of the average came through bonuses including cash or stock options, which Macdonald said companies creatively calculated to ensure poor performance during the pandemic didn’t affect CEO pay.

“This only happens in bad times,” said Macdonald. “When things go badly for the company, CEOs are protected in many cases. When things go well for the company, the sky’s the limit.”