Yep, Canada has wealth inequality!

The average CEO makes $14.3 million dollars annually while the average worker earns $58,800 a year. Canada has literally one of the worst income gaps of any advanced country.

This is a follow-up article to ‘Scotland’s national health system is all public and a world leader. Can someone please tell Ford?’

It’ll unite important information with credible sources where Small Change readers can find a wealth of innovative ideas and actions for social justice accomplices.

Let’s begin by looking more closely at wealth inequality in Canada. Yep, there is such a thing, eh!

There are probably people out there saying, ‘what is this woman talking about? Wealth inequality is a thing of the past. We don’t have that in Canada.’ Well, that’s not exactly true.

In 2014 the Broadbent Institute released an amazing 4-minute video called Wealth Inequality in Canada. It lays bare the truths about the gap between wealthy, middle class and poor Canadians.

The really sad part is that since this video was made, wealth inequality has exponentially worsened.

I encourage you to make the time to watch the video, but here’s a few highlights to set the stage for the rest of this article.

Canadians overwhelmingly want a more balanced distribution of wealth. Perhaps, the dream of equality in combination with the delusion that Canadians are nice, fair people, causes Canadians to underestimate the wealth inequality in this country.

In 2012, the richest 20 per cent owned over 70 per cent of the wealth in Canada.

The wealth share of the poorest 20 per cent of Canadians doesn’t even register on a pictograph because they have less than one per cent of the country’s wealth.

In fact, the bottom 10 per cent of Canadians have more debt than assets.

Some of you may be shocked to learn that the bottom 50 per cent of all Canadians own less than six per cent of the country’s wealth.

So, exactly where is the ‘healthy middle class’ that certain politicians/political parties refer and pander to?

The reality is, it’s missing in action.

If we broaden our focus to include financial assets like stocks and bonds, things get even worse for Canadians. That’s because the top ten per cent hold over 60 per cent of all financial assets.

To bring that into focus, that means that the top ten per cent have more assets than the bottom 90 per cent of all Canadians combined.

In 2014, the top one per cent in Canada owned almost 20 per cent of all the wealth. The richest 86 families owned more than the bottom 11 million Canadians.

Let that sink in for a minute or two before I tell you that on average, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) made 206 times the pay of an average worker in 2014.

That number skyrocketed in 2021 to 243 times what the average worker makes.

In 2021 real dollars (the most recent figures), that looks like the average CEO making $14.3 million dollars annually vs. the average worker earning $58,800 a year. Canada has literally one of the worst income gaps of any advanced country.

Wealth inequality happened, and continues to happen, because Canadians have elected parties that made conscious, intentional political decisions that have been steadily cutting social spending and dismantling social safety nets since the 1980s.

Increasingly, Canadians have elected Conservative provincial governments who align themselves with the ‘working man,’ – a very misogynous, sexist term.

Conservatives promise untold wealth for those who pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work hard.

Meanwhile, they are stealthly ‘cutting costs’ and ‘red tape’ by dismantling and privatizing universal health care and public education; keeping minimum wage below poverty levels; busting unions and wreaking havoc on social safety nets.

I use Canadian sources whenever I can, but sometimes the former US Secretary of Labour, Robert Reich, gives the best explanations with the most engaging graphics.

Let’s start by Debunking the Economic Myth many Canadians mistakenly accept as gospel and Conservative governments want to perpetuate ad infinitum.

Astronomical CEO salaries and insane profits are normalized based on three myths that offer Canadians false choices.

Myth #1 – CEOs, corporations and the rich are the only creators of jobs. That means, they must be given lower tax rates and tax breaks to incentivize job creation.

Rubbish! says Reich.

The real job creators are the middle class and poor who spend money and create jobs.

In order to create more jobs and a booming economy, minimum wage needs to be increased to a livable wage; overtime protections expanded, and the middle class taxed less.

To pay for universal social safety nets, infrastructure, the transition to a green and care economy, Canada will need to increase the share of taxes paid by corporations and the rich.

Myth #2 – People must choose between the free market or government.

Reich answers – Baloney!

The free market is created and enforced by government.

Instead, Reich says, worry about who government is for and who they are listening to. Corporate lobbyists make government biased to those at the top – CEOs, corporations and the wealthy.

So, the game is rigged from the start.

Canadians just have to look to what is happening on Ontario. The privatization of health care wasn’t even an election issue last spring. Ford was never given a mandate to privatize.

Yet, Ford is plowing ahead privatizing as much of the universal health care system as he can before the next election.

The expansion of private, for profit of long-term care by the Ford government continues to traumatize and harm residents, their families and staff.  

The Ford is continuing down the highway of privatization hell because it benefits the CEOs and shareholders who have Ford’s ear.

Reich’s solution is to vote in governments at every level that work for the many and not for the elite few.

Reich also wants more of us to unionize and to support unionized workers. It’s well documented that when unions do better, we all do better.

Historically, unions have been an agent of change offsetting the power imbalance that exists between workers and business/government.

In the 1950s when unions were strong, wages grew in step with the economy. Workers gained benefits and better working conditions.

But since the 1980s, private sector employers have been fighting against unions. That loss of union jobs is reflected in a weakened, and quickly vanishing, middle class.

Union busting – a tactic the Ford government likes to use – and moving production to cheaper places has concentrated more power and money in the hands of CEOs.

As Reich points out, unions are essential for the future given the pressures of globalization, technological advancements, and Right-wing politicians’ love of right to work legislation.

Right to work legislation is completely wrong for workers, but Right-wing politicians love to promote it as worker friendly.

Under right to work legislation, workers earn significantly less than their unionized counterparts leaving more for CEOs and shareholders.

Under right to work laws, society experiences higher poverty, infant mortality, and workplace fatalities. There’s also a correlation between right to work and lower investment in education.

These laws are designed to destroy unions by taking away the union’s ability to collect union dues from members.

That money would normally be used during bargaining for a variety of expenses including strike pay which allows the union put pressure on employers for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

When unions do better it raises the bar for all employers and improves the lives of all workers.

Not surprisingly, right work legislation is backed by corporations and Right-leaning political parties and governments. The goal is to undermine worker bargaining power and drive wages to the lowest common denominator.

These same corporations are notorious for not conducting research and development, or adding value, and they are more likely to be on the lookout for a cheaper workforce and laxer environmental laws to exploit even if that means moving production outside of Canada.

For those interested in supporting Canadian workers; committed to saving universal health care and public education; and increasing wealth equality, here are some campaigns and organizations that you should check out:

Enough is Enough Campaign – Ontario Federation of Labour

Justice for Workers  -- Ontario

Decent Work and Health Network  -- Ontario

Migrant Rights Network  -- National

Campaign 2000 – National   Please take the Poverty Quiz

Ontario Health Coalition – Find out more about the provincial referendum being held in May and volunteer with your local coalition.