As of 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, the leaders of Quebec’s largest companies will have already earned the average salary of a Quebec worker over the course of an entire year, according to a report from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
Each year, the CCPA compiles the list of the 100 highest paid business leaders in Canada. Among them, 21 business leaders whose head office is located in Quebec are included.
The report released Tuesday shows that on average, these 21 CEOs earn $13.1 million per year. Thus, in less than two days in 2024, they earned on average $57,900, or up to 226 times more than the average Quebecer.
The average salary in just 8 hours
Across the country, with average pay of $7,162 per hour, it takes a little more than eight hours of work for the 100 CEOs of the largest companies in Canada to earn the average annual salary of a Canadian worker. So, at 9:27 a.m. on January 2, 2024, they would have already won $60,600.
Note that the latest data shows that in 2022, the average worker in Canada obtained an average increase of $1,800, or 3%, going from $58,800 in 2021 to $60,600 in 2022. At the same time, prices have increased by 6.8% in 2022.
“As the tide of inflation hits ordinary Canadians, Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs are headed for another record year,” the report reads.
The document specifies that in 2022, these big bosses received an average of $14.9 million. An “unprecedented” peak that beats the previous record of $14.3 million set last year, noted economist David Macdonald, author of the report. It’s also double what CEOs received in 2008 ($7.4 million).
Only four of the country’s top bosses out of 100 are women, which “is nothing new and which continues to illustrate the extreme inequality between the sexes at the top of Canadian companies,” he said.
- The study carried out by the CCPA is based on data related to CEO compensation from their companies’ 2022 annual reports.
The highest paid business leaders in Quebec in 2022
1 – Joseph C. Papa
• Company: Bausch Health Companies
• Total compensation: $25,742,006
2 – Philip Fayer
• Company: Nuvei Corporation
• Total compensation: $21,015,277
3 – Thomas J. Appio
• Company: Bausch Health Companies
• Total compensation: $17,140,022
4 – Darryl White
• Company: Bank of Montreal
• Total compensation: $14,285,506
5 – Serge Godin
• Company: CGI Group
• Total compensation: $13,800,517
6 – Tracy Robinson
• Company: Canadian National
• Total compensation: $13,730,479
7 – Alain Bédard
• Company: TFI International
• Total compensation: $13,725,105
8 – George D. Schindler
• Company: CGI Group
• Total compensation: $13,627,963
9 Mirko Bibic
• Company: Bell Canada
• Total compensation: $13,593,649
10 – R. Jeffrey Orr
• Company: Power Corporation of Canada
• Total compensation: $13,311,802
11 – Glenn J. Chamandy
• Company: Gildan Activewear
• Total compensation: $12,866,848
12 – Michael Rousseau
• Company: Air Canada
• Total compensation: $12,375,100
13 – Brian Hannasch
• Company: Alimentation Couche-Tard
• Total compensation: $12,269,263
14 – Alexandre L’Heureux
• Company: WSP Global
• Total compensation: $11,530,245
15 – Laurent Ferreira
• Company: National Bank of Canada
• Total compensation: $10,988,413
16 – Neil Rossy
• Company: Dollarama
• Total compensation: $10,627,929
17 – Marc Parent
• Company: CAE
• Total compensation: $10,598,763
18 – Dan Barclay
• Company: Bank of Montreal
• Total compensation: $9,099,750
19 – Eric Martel
• Company: Bombardier
• Total compensation: $8,666,398
20 – José Boisjoli
• Company: BRP Inc.
• Total compensation: $8,546,282
21 – Ian L. Edwards
• Company: SNC-Lavalin Group
• Total compensation: $7,976,320