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).

Publishers take pay cut

Billings Blog reports that Lee's publishers took a 25 percent pay cut on March 1, citing a March report by Rick Foote in the Butte Weekly.

Junck took home $2.5 million in 2008

Editor & Publisher's Fitz of Fitz & Jen takes a closer look at Lee's freeze on executive salaries.

The blog says CEO Mary Junck's 2008 salary was $850,000, but total compensation in 2008 was $2,543,453. That's 32.9 percent less than her compensation in 2007: $3,791,282.

Simply Hired says the average salary of Lee jobs, which range from an editor to an intern, is $26,000.