Ahead of union vote, a look at Lee executives salaries

On Saturday, St. Louis Newspaper Guild members at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will vote on Lee's "final offer" five-year contract. That offer includes a 6 percent pay cut through September 2015, a one-week unpaid furlough in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and a possible "snap-back" salary increase in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Which gives us an opportunity to look at the salary of Lee's leaders. According to the company's proxy statement released in January:

Name	2009 salary	2009 compensation	2008 salary	2008 compensation
CEO Mary E. Junck	$833,654	$882,454	$850,000	$1,089,506
CFO Carl G. Schmidt	$472,731	$612,831	$482,000	$681,492
VP Greg R. Veon	$354,058	$381,337	$361,000	$487,315
VP Kevin D. Mowbray	$328,558	$353,328	$335,000	$452,383
VP Vytenis P. Kuraitis	$262,846	$283,413	$268,000	$370,266

Salaries for each executive decreased by 1.92 percent -- or approximately a one-week unpaid furlough. Total compensation includes bonuses, stock awards and retirement account contributions; fewer of those were awarded. From 2007 to 2008, each executive's salary increased by more than 3 percent.

If Junck followed the salary guidelines and furloughs the union will vote on:

	6 percent pay cut	Furlough	Snap-back	Annual salary
2010	$799,000	$16,346.15		$782,653.85
2011	$799,000	$16,346.15		$782,653.85
2012	$799,000	$16,346.15		$782,653.85
2013	$799,000		$19,975	$818,975
2014	$799,000		$40,948.75	$839,948.75
2015	$799,000		$62,996.16	$861,996.16

Furlough represents one-week's salary, calculated by dividing the annual salary by 52 weeks. The "snap-back" is added if the company increases its annual revenue by at least 2 percent, which I am assuming in this example, and will result in a salary increase of 2.5 percent in the last three years of the contract.

If Mowbray, who in addition to being a vice president of publishing is also the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, followed the same salary reduction and furlough schedule:

	6 percent pay cut	Furlough	Snap-back	Annual salary
2010	$314,900	$6,442.31		$308,457.69
2011	$314,900	$6,442.31		$308,457.69
2012	$314,900	$6,442.31		$308,457.69
2013	$314,900		$7,872.50	$322,772.50
2014	$314,900		$16,138.62	$331,038.62
2015	$314,900		$24,827.90	$339,727.90

From 2008 to 2015, Junck's and Mowbray's salaries would have increased by 1.41 percent (assuming, of course, that there were no bonuses or other additional compensation).