Record $20.4 billion earnings help lift Dave McKay's package above target amid scrutiny of inequality
Royal Bank of Canada is paying its long-time chief executive Dave McKay more than $20m a year as the bank delivers record profits, even as new data show Canada’s CEO–worker pay gap hitting fresh highs.
According to Reuters, Royal Bank of Canada set CEO Dave McKay’s 2025 total compensation at $22.09m, 30 percent above his compensation target for the year, based on a regulatory filing.
RBC, Canada’s biggest bank by market capitalisation, highlighted McKay’s role in delivering strong results “in the backdrop of major shifts in global trade and geopolitics.”
Bloomberg reported that McKay received $23.76m in total compensation last year, including a bonus that was 86 percent above his target as the bank achieved record earnings.
His base salary in fiscal 2025 was $2m and was “essentially unchanged from a year earlier,” with most of his pay coming from incentive compensation along with share‑ and option‑based awards.
Bloomberg also reported that McKay took home about $2m less than in 2024, when he received a larger share‑based award linked to Royal Bank’s successful closing of its acquisition of HSBC Holdings Plc’s Canadian assets.
Reuters said the bank earned $20.4bn in 2025, up 25 percent year over year.
Bloomberg reported that this is driven by growth across all business segments, and said the board credited McKay’s leadership in navigating a turbulent environment.
Reuters noted that McKay’s 2025 salary was 8 percent higher than in 2024 and that his 2026 compensation target remains unchanged at $17m.
McKay, 62, has been at the helm of RBC since 2014 and is one of the longest‑tenured CEOs among the bank’s Canadian and US peers.
Bloomberg reported that Royal Bank plans to increase annual compensation for its board directors by 22 percent to $415,000 per year, following a review by an external consultant, according to the bank’s annual proxy circular.
The same filing included 11 shareholder proposals for the April 9 annual meeting, with topics such as climate change, disclosure of the ratio of executive pay to average worker pay, the bank’s use of tax havens and artificial intelligence governance.
As a peer reference, Bloomberg reported that National Bank of Canada, the country’s sixth‑largest lender, paid CEO Laurent Ferreira $13.45m in total compensation, up from $12.07m in 2024.
CTV News, citing CCPA data, reported that the “CEO pay day” milestone is based on an average worker earning $65,548 annually and CEO compensation now averaging $16.2m, or 248 times the average worker’s pay.
This surpasses the previous record of $14.9m in 2022, when the gap stood at 246 times the average.
According to CTV’s summary of the CCPA report, CEO pay has increased 49 percent since 2020, compared with a 15 percent rise for workers.
In the 1980s, CEOs earned nearly 40 to 50 times what the average worker earned, rising to about 100 times by the 1990s.
On pay structure, the CCPA found that CEO base salaries, at nearly $1.3m, have not changed significantly over the last 10 years, but that in 2024 more than 84 percent of CEO compensation came from bonuses in the form of cash payments, stock awards and stock options.
The CCPA also found that between January 2020 and January 2025, the average price of goods and services for Canadians rose 18 percent, while workers’ pay increased 15 percent, implying what the report called an effective 3 percent pay cut for workers once inflation is taken into account.
