The "Sunshine List" is the everyday name for the annual public disclosure of public-sector employees who are paid above a set salary threshold. The nickname comes from the idea of "letting the sunshine in" on how public money is spent — making taxpayer-funded salaries open to anyone who wants to look.
Ontario started it. The province's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996 required every organization that gets public funding to publish the name, position, salary, and taxable benefits of anyone paid $100,000 or more in a calendar year. Most other provinces have since adopted their own versions.
Where the $100,000 threshold came from
When the Act passed in 1996, a $100,000 public-sector salary was genuinely rare — six figures put you in a small minority of the workforce. The threshold has never been indexed to inflation, so the same $100,000 line that once captured a few thousand people now captures hundreds of thousands.
In 1996 dollars, $100,000 is worth about $185,000 today, using Statistics Canada CPI (check any year with our inflation calculator). If the threshold had tracked inflation, the list would be a fraction of its current size.
What counts as "compensation"
Two figures are disclosed for each person, and the total of the two is what determines whether someone makes the list:
- Salary paid — the actual amount paid in the calendar year (T4 Box 14, before deductions).
- Taxable benefits — the taxable benefits reported on the T4 (e.g. employer-paid life insurance).
It does not include pension contributions, severance paid in a different year, or non-taxable reimbursements. On this site we show the total compensation paid (salary + taxable benefits) as the headline figure for every person.
Which employers have to disclose
Coverage is broad. It generally includes the provincial government, Crown corporations and agencies, municipalities, hospitals, school boards, colleges, universities, and other organizations that receive public funding.
How to search it
You can search the full record on this site by name, by employer, or by job title. Each person has a profile showing their compensation and full year-by-year history.
The debate: accountability vs. privacy
Supporters argue the list is basic accountability — the public has a right to know how its money is spent. Critics argue that publishing individual names is an invasion of privacy, especially as inflation pulls ordinary professionals onto a list designed for executives. Both points are real, and the debate resurfaces every year when the data drops.