Today the CCPA released its annual look at CEO compensation and found that by noon on January 3rd, the first official working day of the year, Canada’s Elite 100 CEOs (the 100 highest paid CEOs of companies listed in the TSX Index) will have already pocketed $44,366. It takes the Average Joe an entire year, working full-time, to earn that same amount.

By the end of 2010, Canada’s Elite 100 CEOs had pocketed an average $8.38 million. That’s a 27 per cent increase over the average $6.6 million they pocketed in 2009. At this rate, the average of Canada’s CEO Elite 100 make 189 times more than Canadians earning the average wage. If you think that’s normal, it’s not. In 1998, the highest paid 100 Canadian CEOs earned 105 times more than the average wage.

Watch the video and visit The Clash for the Cash: CEO vs. Average Joe to find out how much these contenders have earned so far.

This article was first posted on Behind the Numbers.