Davenport, Iowa-Based Media Company Lee Enterprises Inc's Top-Tier Executives Average Pay Raise Was at First Glance a Seemingly Reasonable 6.5% Per Year During the Past 10 Years (Sept 2009-Sept 2018). But Lee Enterprises Suffered a 63% Decline in Its Number of Employees in the Past Ten Years, Dropping From 8,200 at Sept 2008 to 3,056 at Sept 2018. It Also Went Through a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2011. So Has the Economic Pain Really Been Fairly Shared By Its Top-Tier Executives?

After the second Democratic 2020 Presidential candidate debate held in Detroit where Cory Booker was the standout performer, where several other non-top-tier candidates performed exceptionally well especially Steve Bullock and where most of the top-tier candidates stumbled, I now will turn my attention to the early primary States and start with Iowa and then move to New Hampshire.

The key issue to Iowa citizens should be the huge and continuing Income Inequality Expansion which is at the core of many critical problems the US faces.

Thus I will be doing research and making posts on the average pay raise per year that the Top-Tier Executives of the larger Iowa Companies were rewarded with in the past ten years.

The 17th Iowa Company I am addressing here is Media Company Lee Enterprises Inc.

From annual compensation information contained in Company Proxy Statement filings with the SEC, the chart at the very bottom below shows Lee Enterprises Inc's Top-Tier Executives Annual Total Compensation for each of two consecutive full years of employment for the past ten years. 

The financially struggling Lee Enterprises Inc's Top-Tier Executive Average Pay Raise was 6.5% per year for the last ten years, the very lowest of the 17 Iowa Companies I have addressed so far.

1. Renewable Energy Group +184.2% per year for the past ten years
2. FGL Holdings +148.2% per year for the past two years
3. Athene Holding Ltd +116.8% per year for the past three years
4. Workiva +71.6% per year for the past five years
5. Winnebago Industries +25.8% per year for the past ten years
6. American Equity Investment Life +25.0% per year for the past ten years
7. Casey's General Stores +24.2% per year for the past ten years
8. United Fire Group +17.8% per year for the last ten years
9. Principal Financial Group +14.4% per year for the past ten years
10. Heartland Financial USA +13.8% per year for the past ten years
11. Meredith Corp +11.6% per year for the past ten years
12. Heartland Express +10.7% per year for the past ten years
13. FBL Financial Group +10.4% per year for the past ten years
14. HNI Corp +9.0% per year for the past ten years
15. Rockwell Collins +9.0% per year for the past ten years
16. MidWestOne Financial Group +7.0% per year for the past ten years
17. Lee Enterprises +6.5% per year for the past ten years

The only highly effective US Government law enacted by either party in the past decade that has substantially reduced income inequality expansion is Obamacare and the political right is continually trying to repeal and replace it and three of the top four Democratic Presidential candidates now leading in the polls are effectively running as their principal issue to do in essence precisely the same thing ..... repeal and replace Obamacare ..... but to do it with either a pure or a version of Medicare For All.  The pure Medicare For All advocated by both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and which was co-sponsored in a US Senate bill by Kamala Harris is off-the-charts enormously expensive and would take up an enormous amount of wasted time with no positive result since it has no chance of getting passed legislatively.  Just given their near-sighted stance on Medicare For All, if the Democratic nominee is any of the three of them, it will be extremely difficult for any of them to beat Trump in the general election.  It is that simple. 

My objective is to get a better handle on just why the US and particularly here Iowa has such massive continuing Income Inequality Expansion ..... it appears to be predominantly about the relative long-term annual pay raise percentages for the executives of a Company vs the many non-executive employees of a Company, coupled with the stock price appreciation subsequent to the time the company executives were rewarded in their pay with stock equity compensation.

To fix Income Inequality driven mainly by Company and its Board of Director choices on Percentage Annual Pay Raises, the US Government should step in and pass wisely-designed, simple but effective Fair Pay Raise Income Inequality Narrowing Company tax incentives ..... the carrot ..... and Company wise tax disincentives ..... the stick.  I am certain ..... it is simple math ..... that this tax proposal would be very effective in substantially reducing the huge income inequality expansion that has occurred for decades in annual percentage pay raises between company executives and the rest of the company employees. 

And the continuing annual net tax revenues raised by the US Government here should be set up in a separate fund to be used only for wise additional income inequality narrowing initiatives.  This fund should be run by an outside group made up entirely of minorities harmed the most by Income Inequality Expansion of the past decades  .....all women, all blacks, all Latinos, all other non-white people, all past and present union members, all LGBTQ, all non-employee contract workers and all middle and lower income people of all ages, including those retired.

Also, the US Government should require all US Corporate Boards to include at least one worker representative and to exclude any Company Executive.

	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept
Lee Enterprises	2018	2017		2017	2016		2016	2015		2015	2014		2014	2013
Top-Tier	Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total
Executive	Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp
	$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s
Mary Junck Executive Chairman	1,456	1,999		1,999	1,894		1,894	2,313		2,313	2,828		2,828	1,575
Kevin Mowbray CEO	1,351	2,217		2,217	1,317		1,317	937		937	835		835	804
Timothy Millage CFO	N/A	N/A
John Humenik	555	537		N/A	N/A
Nathan Bekke VP ConsumerSales&Marketing	458	518		N/A	N/A
Ronald Mayo Former CFO	N/A	N/A		999	761		N/A	N/A
James Green VP Digital							449	488		N/A	N/A
Carl Schmidt Former CFO										N/A	N/A		1,268	728
Paul Farrell VP Sales and Marketing										483	466		N/A	N/A
Michael Gulledge VP Sales and Marketing													458	433
Totals	3,820	5,271		5,215	3,972		3,660	3,738		3,733	4,129		5,389	3,540
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-27.5%			31.3%			-2.1%			-9.6%			52.2%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		8.9%
	FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE		FYE	FYE
	Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept		Sept	Sept
Lee Enterprises	2013	2012		2012	2011		2011	2010		2010	2009		2009	2008
Top-Tier	Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total		Total	Total
Executive	Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp		Comp	Comp
	$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s		$ 000s	$ 000s
Mary Junck Executive Chairman	1,575	2,093		2,093	1,151		1,151	834		834	882		882	1,143
Kevin Mowbray CEO	804	592		592	445		445	329		329	353		353	761
Carl Schmidt Former CFO	728	906		906	613		613	473		473	613		613	1,160
Paul Farrell VP Sales and Marketing	N/A	N/A
Michael Gulledge VP Sales and Marketing	433	527		527	300		300	217
Greg Veon VP Publishing	421	450		450	399		399	354		354	381		381	820
Vytenis Kuraitis VP Human Resources							326	263		263	283		283	565
Totals	3,961	4,568		4,568	2,908		3,234	2,470		2,253	2,512		2,512	4,449
Annual % Change vs Prior Year	-13.3%			57.1%			30.9%			-10.3%			-43.5%
5 Year Average Per Year % Change		4.2%
10 Year Average Per Year % Change		6.5%

Now on to New Hampshire Companies.