Richest CEOs reportedly earn 235 times average salary

By the time you read this, the typical CEO of a major Canadian company will already have earned more this year than you will for all of 2013.

That's the conclusion of a report from left-leaning think-tank the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives this week.

The report, with the cheeky title "Overcompensating," found the average salary among Canada's 100 highest paid chief executive officers was $7.7 million in 2011.

Average compensation for Canada's 50 richest CEOs is more than 235 times the salary of the average Canadian salaried worker, a ratio that has expanded rapidly in recent years. In 1995, the group notes, that ratio sat at 85-1.

"By 1:18 p.m. on Jan. 2, the first official working day of the year," the group said in a press release, "Canada’s top 100 CEOs will have already pocketed $45,448. It takes the average Canadian an entire year of full-time work to earn that."

Although he has since been given a generous package to relinquish control of the company, Frank Stronach was Canada's highest-paid CEO in 2011, taking in almost $41 million in compensation to head up the auto-parts conglomerate Magna, which he founded.

No. 2 on the list was a little less well known — Michael Pearson of generic drug manufacturer Valeant. He pocketed more than $36 million, the CCPA says.