WHO EARNS WHAT

Groceries, rent, inflation, shrinkflationToronto has never been more expensive. What better time than now to obsess over other people's incomes?

- ANTHONY MILTON

MONEY IS ON EVERYONE'S lips in these financially fraught times-the exorbitant price of food, gas and shelter; the stagnating state of our wages; the ever-expanding income gap-so it seemed like the perfect moment to resurrect our city-wide salary survey, which we last compiled in 2011. A lot has changed. To figure out who makes what in 2024, we dug through documents, consulted experts, emailed subjects, then called them, then emailed them again-and got turned down. A lot. (Everyone wanted to know what other people made, but their own earnings were none of our &@*#*%?! business.) In the following pages, you'll find out who's squeaking by, who's maxing out their RRSPs and who's buy-anarchipelago rich. You'll read about the CEOs who draw $1 salaries but have some eye-popping perks, the public servants who make more than the mayor (lots of them), and the city's newest crop of athletes, who should probably, definitely be asking for a raise.

BUSINESS

Tobias Lütke

Shopify's founder relocated to Toronto this year, shifting the e-commerce giant's centre of gravity out of Ottawa. A few months earlier, the company announced plans to slash roughly 20 per cent of its staff. Amid such layoffs, Lütke's stated salary of one loonie per year appeared to be a gesture of noblesse oblige. But its effect was undercut somewhat when he was awarded $27.3 million in stock options in 2023 and approved for $205 million in stock- and share-based awards to be paid out over the coming years-one of the largest compensation packages in Canadian history. Lütke, who already owns some $8 billion in Shopify stock, also serves on the board of crypto exchange platform Coinbase, which paid him $411,145 in stocks last year. All told, his net worth is a whopping $7.4 billion.