Only in the first hours of 2024, one of Canada's top 100 CEOs won 60,000 Canadian dollars (41,124 euros), as much money as the annual salary of the average worker in the country, according to a study published this Tuesday.

According to data from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), the average compensation received by the country's top 100 CEOs is $7,162 per hour. In just over eight hours, they earned as much as an average worker would earn in all of 2024.

CCPA senior economist David Macdonald explained in a statement that these executives earn 246 times more than the average worker in the country: a record proportion which exceeds the previous maximum243, reached in 2021.

Macdonald added that in 2022, on average, the country's top 100 executives earned C$14.9 million per year.

The CCPA economist also pointed out that the country's top leaders benefit directly from high inflation that Canada has been suffering for more than two years because their financial compensation is tied to corporate profits and less dependent on the salaries they receive.

In 2022, the average increase in workers' wages was 3%, lower than that year's inflation, which reached 6.8%. On the other hand, the salary increase received by executives is 4.4%which, although it was also lower than inflation, had a different effect for the country's CEOs.

“In 2021 and 2022, inflation and corporate profits have soared. And as a direct result, CEO bonuses also hit historic highsbecause businesses benefited from high prices,” explained the CCPA.

The Ottawa-based think tank has proposed that the Canadian government create a new tax bracket for high-income earners and impose a wealth tax, among other measures, to reduce inequalities between senior managers and workers.

“CEO pay continues to rise without limits. Taxes could be the necessary check,” Macdonald explained.