The Hennessy Index is a monthly listing of numbers, written by the CCPA’s Trish Hennessy, about Canada and its place in the world.

February 2011: Inequality

• $6.6 million
The average compensation of Canada’s best-paid 100 CEOs in 2009. (Source

• $42,988
The average wage for Canadians working full time, year round. (Source

• 155 times
How much the best-paid 100 CEOs earn more than average wage. (Source

• Zero
The number of women among the best-paid 100 CEOs in Canada in 2009. (Source

• 20th
Canada ranks 20th, behind the U.S., in a global ranking of women’s equality. (Source

• Canada’s richest 1 per cent
Doubled their income share between the late 1970s and 2007. (Source

• Canada’s richest 0.01 per cent
Quintupled their share of income during that same period. (Source

• Shrinking middle
The share of income for the bottom 80 per cent of Canadian families with children is smaller today than it was a generation ago. (Source

• Teetering
Six out of 10 Canadians could be in trouble if their pay cheque gets delayed. (Source

• Debt nation
Canadian consumer debt to financial assets ratio worst of 20 OECD nations. (Source

• $1.41 trillion
Canadian household debt. (Source

• 17th
Canada ranks 17 out of 24 OECD nations on children’s material well-being. (Source

• One in 10
Canadian children live in poverty. One in four Aboriginal children live in poverty. (Source

A solution
Shifting 1 per cent of Canadians’ collective after-tax income to the one in 10 Canadians living in low income would eliminate poverty in Canada. (Source

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s Trish Hennessy has long been a fan of Harper Magazine’s one-page list of eye-popping statistics, Harper’s Index. Instead of wishing for a Canadian version to magically appear, she’s created her own index — a monthly listing of numbers about Canada and its place in the world. Hennessy’s Index — A number is never just a number — comes out on the first of each month in rabble.ca.

Hennessy's Index

Hennessy's Index

Trish Hennessy, author of the monthly Hennessy’s Index, is director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Ontario office. Read back issues of Hennessy’s Index at CCPA: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/index...