Canada’s top CEOs earned an average of $10.9 million during first year of pandemic

In 2020, the top 100 highest paid CEOs had their second best year in history in terms of income. These CEOs earned an average of $10.9 million.

"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 the report that detailed this research.

This report was released to the public on Tuesday. Meanwhile, during the year of 2020, many Canadians were made unemployed by the lockdown, and many small businesses were not allowed to operate.

The $10.9 million figure was an increase of $95 thousand compared to 2019. Having said this, the highest year on record was 2018 where CEOs made an average of $11.8 million.

Much of this income derives from bonuses, which made up as much as 80 percent of their total income.

"This only happens in bad times," said the report. "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."