Friday, 28 January 2011
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
When is the last time you got an 843% wage increase?
That's right folks. You are reading it correctly. An 843% wage increase.
That's exactly what the highest paid corporate executive in Saskatchewan gave himself over an 8 year span. An examination of the Executive Compensation reports from the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan show that President and Chief Executive Officer, William J. Doyle's compensation package is, in a word, astonishing.
For the 3 year period covering 1999, 2000, and 2001 Mr. Doyle received a grand total of $4,411,556 in executive compensation, or an average of about $1.5 million per year.
For the 3 year period covering 2007, 2008, and 2009 Mr. Doyle received a grand total of $37,174,358 in executive compensation, or an average of about $12.4 million per year.
That's the equivalent of an increase of more than 100% per year, each year, for 8 years.
(click images for larger view)
That's exactly what the highest paid corporate executive in Saskatchewan gave himself over an 8 year span. An examination of the Executive Compensation reports from the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan show that President and Chief Executive Officer, William J. Doyle's compensation package is, in a word, astonishing.
For the 3 year period covering 1999, 2000, and 2001 Mr. Doyle received a grand total of $4,411,556 in executive compensation, or an average of about $1.5 million per year.
For the 3 year period covering 2007, 2008, and 2009 Mr. Doyle received a grand total of $37,174,358 in executive compensation, or an average of about $12.4 million per year.
That's the equivalent of an increase of more than 100% per year, each year, for 8 years.
(click images for larger view)
Friday, 21 January 2011
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Minimum wage increases have a "positive" impact on business
The supplementary submission makes a compelling argument for increasing the minimum wage, and for ensuring that a system is in place to guarantee that minimum wage earners do not lose ground to inflation (indexing).
Below are some interesting facts about Saskatchewan's current minimum wage.
Minimum Wage FactsYou can read the full (12 page) submission by downloading a copy here....
- Roughly 31,000 Saskatchewan people are paid the province’s lowest permissible wage.
- Nearly 40% of low-wage earners in Saskatchewan are between the ages of 25 and 55.
- 78% of low-wage earners in Saskatchewan work in permanent jobs.
- 60% of minimum wage workers are women.
- Increases to the minimum wage are often followed by an increase in employment rates.
- Viewpoints Research found in December 2010 that 71.9% of Saskatchewan people want to see the minimum wage raised.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
Greedy CEOs earn more in one day than most people earn in a year
Reproduced below is the CCPA's (Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives) news release announcing it's annual study of Executive Compensation in Canada. Corporate greed is contributing to the dismantling of our just society.
“At this rate of reward, this handful of elite CEOs pocket the equivalent of the average Canadian wage by 2:30 pm on January 3 – the first working day of the year,” says the study’s author and CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie.
"Canada’s best-paid CEOs ‘recession-proof’: study
National Office News Release
January 3, 2011
TORONTO – Canada’s best-paid 100 CEOs breezed through the worst of the recession with earnings 155 times higher than the average Canadian income earner, says a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The study, Recession-Proof, looks at 2009 compensation levels for Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs and finds they pocketed an average of $6.6 million during the darkest period of the recession – a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,988.
“At this rate of reward, this handful of elite CEOs pocket the equivalent of the average Canadian wage by 2:30 pm on January 3 – the first working day of the year,” says the study’s author and CCPA Research Associate Hugh Mackenzie.
The study shows executive compensation in Canada wasn’t always this rich. In 1998, the best paid 100 CEOs pocketed an average of 104 times more than the average Canadian wage earner, compared to 155 times more in 2009.
“Even that extraordinary number understates the real story,” says Mackenzie. “Thanks to a change in corporate reporting introduced in 2008, we only have a conservative statistical estimate of the stock options that make up about one third of CEOs’ 2009 pay. The public will never know how much most of these CEOs actually got paid in 2009.
“And that’s only half the story. These CEOs are sitting on $1.3 billion of stock options they haven’t yet cashed in. That’s about $2 in future income for every $1 they declared in 2009.”
When the CEOs decide to exercise those stock options, the study reveals Canadians will subsidize that bonus with an estimated average of $360 million in foregone taxes, since stock options are taxed at a lower rate, as if they are capital gains. Among Mackenzie’s recommendations: getting rid of that expensive and unfair loophole.
The study highlights the role that soaring executive compensation plays in the dramatic growth in income inequality in Canada identified in a recent CCPA study by Senior Economist Armine Yalnizyan. Yalnizyan found that fully one third of all income growth in Canada in the past 20 years went to the richest 1% of Canadians.
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For more information please contact: Trish Hennessy at (416) 551-2059 or Kerri-Anne Finn at (613) 563-1341 x306.
Recession-Proof
Canada’s 100 best paid CEOs"
Read the full Report...
