Richest CEOs reportedly earn 235 times average salary

By the time you read this, the typical CEO ofa major Canadian company will already have earned more this yearthan 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 ismore 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, "Canadas 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. Hepocketed more than $36 million, the CCPA says.