As of noon on January 3, Canada's top 100 chief executive officers have earned as much as most Canadians can expect to earn in all of 2012, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

In a release published on the CCPA website on January 2, the think tank says the average income for those top 100 was $8.38 million in 2010, a 27 per cent increase over the $6.6 million they averaged in 2009.

"Even in these turbulent times," the CCPA said, "the average of Canada's CEO Elite 100 make 189 times more than Canadians earning the average wage."

The CCPA has an interactive counter, The Clash for the Cash, showing an up-to-the-second tally of what the average CEO has earned this year compared to "the average Joe." The accompanying text notes that "By 12:00 noon January 3, the first official working day of the year, Canada's Elite 100 CEOs already pocketed $44,366 -- what it takes the Average Joe an entire year, working full-time, to earn."

The CCPA's 21-page PDF report, "Canada's CEO Elite 100: The 0.01%," is available here.

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.