By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- A recent report by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has found that staff at the Bank of Canada were recipients of bonuses and raises in 2022 amounting to a total of $26.7 million.
The breakdown shows that employees received $20.2 million as bonuses while another $6.5 million was allocated for salary increments, marking a significant 13% increase from 2021. The average bonus per employee stood at over $11k with each person receiving an average raise exceeding $3k.
The report showed that over 80% bank employees benefited from either a bonus or raise last year.
"Central bankers shouldn’t get bonuses when Canadians can’t afford groceries, gasoline or homes," said Franco Terrazzano, director at Canadian Taxpayers Federation in an interview on CTVNews.ca. "With inflation reaching a 40-year high, central bankers didn't deserve bonuses."
"The Bank of Canada failed to do its job of keeping inflation low and around 2%," added Terrazzano. "Most organizations don’t shower employees with bonuses when they have their worst year in four decades."
As part of its mandate as Canada's central bank, one responsibility is maintaining monetary policy and issuing currency notes – and with a key mandate of keeping keeping inflation within a 2-3% range.
Both consumer and business bankruptcies saw an uptick throughout 2022 while June recorded an alarming rise in Consumer Price Index (CPI) - a key gauge for measuring inflation - surging to an unprecedented 8.1%, over than quadruple times higher than the Central Bank's set limit.
Data obtained by Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation also suggests there has been substantial growth amongst those earning six-figure salaries within BoC doubled between the years 2015-22; with approximately half of the Bank's workforce earning above $100K annually.
In 2022, 1,095 out of 2,250 Bank of Canada employees earned six-figure salaries, a nearly 13% increase since 2021.
A spokesperson for the BoC confirmed the authenticity of the report in an email sent CTVNews.ca.
"Our independent Board Directors oversees management administration including human resources policies" stated Paul Badertscher spokesperson."Like many employers in the financial sector, we hire and retain within a highly competitive environment."
According him bonuses comprise “at-risk pay” for meeting work expectations and “performance pay” for exceeding expectations. "The vast majority of employees met expectations and therefore received their at-risk pay, while about one-quarter of employees received performance pay".
The Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation is a non-profit advocacy group working towards taxpayer interests.