Canada’s 100 top-paid CEOs had a stellar year in 2020, despite the onset of a pandemic which led to layoffs and financial woes for many workers, according to a new report.

“The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) report examined the 100 highest-paid CEOs at publicly traded Canadian-based companies for 2020. It found that their average annual compensation totalled $10.9 million — $95,000 more than their average pay in prepandemic 2019.

“While [2020] was really a pretty bad year for most Canadians, particularly lower paid working Canadians, many of whom lost their jobs … it wasn’t at all a bad year for CEOs,”

MacDonald suggests that added subsidy helped some CEOs achieve revenue targets for lucrative bonuses, even though their companies may have suffered financially due to the pandemic.

“Many of these companies probably didn’t need the [CEWS], but if there’s federal money available, they were going to apply and they were going to take it,” he said. “That was not what this program was meant for.”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ceo-pay-covid-19-1.6303304