The CEO pay ratio at Canada’s largest companies exceeds that of the U.K. but remains below the United States, where it surpasses 300 times.
The CEOs of Canada’s largest publicly traded companies earn more than 150 times the average worker’s salary, though this gap remains far smaller than the widely scrutinized pay ratio in the United States, according to compensation consultants at Gallagher McDowall Associates.
New research from the consultancy, set for release on Friday, indicates that CEO pay at the largest publicly listed Canadian firms—those in the S&P/TSX 60—may have “stabilized” after rising approximately 25% over the past six years.
The research examines trends across the 120 largest public companies, dividing them into two groups based on size. In the lower half of these large companies, CEO compensation “continues to rise every year,” the report notes. “Over the past six years, both cash compensation and long-term incentive (LTI) awards have increased significantly.”
Among the 60 largest companies, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio stands at 159 times, based on Canada’s 2015 average industrial wage. While this figure has remained relatively stable since 2012, the ratio for the bottom half of the large companies has climbed from 70.1 times in 2012 to 83 times today.
(Source)