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Opinion: This think tank study defending big CEO salaries is insulting

People love to bash CEOs and the millions in compensation they earn. And I’m good with that. While regular Canadians earn an average of about $52,000, each of the top 100 CEOs on the S&P/TSX Composite Index earned an average of $11.
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CEOs are well-compensated compared to average Canadians. Pixabay photo

People love to bash CEOs and the millions in compensation they earn.

And I’m good with that. While regular Canadians earn an average of about $52,000, each of the top 100 CEOs on the S&P/TSX Composite Index earned an average of $11.8 million, according to this CBC story.

“By 10:09 a.m. on January 2nd, Canada's highest paid CEOs had made as much money as the average Canadian will earn all year, according to a new report,” reads the story.

Even CEOs who get fired for cause – like the McDonald’s dude who had a relationship with a staff member – get millions in compensation.

So, it’s obvious why we should detest many CEOs of large corporations, right?

Well, not so fast.

Those well-known bleeding hearts at the right-wing think tank the Fraser Institute – authors of the much-detested and flawed school rankings – released a report on Friday saying that the anger towards big CEOs is misplaced and based on “myths and misperceptions.”

“The best business leaders in the world, just like top professional athletes and entertainers, are in limited supply while also being in high demand globally, so the compensation they receive reflects that,” said Vincent Geloso, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of The Truth about CEO and Worker Compensation.

You can read the report in the link above if you want to see how hard-done-by CEOs are. I’m still shaking my head that a think tank felt its resources were needed to be used to defend the pay of CEOs at a time when so many Canadians are suffering in an affordability crisis. Yeah, we get that CEOs are in high demand and so salaries go up - you're not exactly saying anything we didn't already know? 

Average Canadians get all that. We just don't care. We're still angry that these salaries are so obscene compared to ours.

It’s about the most insulting thing I’ve read in a long time. Just go away.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.