Spire, in a year when its earnings and stock price were rising, boosted Chief Executive Suzanne Sitherwood's pay 12% to $4.5 million.
Details of Sitherwood's pay were disclosed in a filed Friday. Her salary was $900,096 after a 3% raise, and her $897,300 bonus was 99.7% of the target amount.
The biggest part of the CEO's compensation was $2.3 million in stock, but three-quarters of that amount is contingent on Spire's earnings and shareholder returns over a three-year period. For a similar award from 2017, Sitherwood and other executives received 97% of the target amount of stock.
Sitherwood's pay package also included a $210,953 increase in pension value, $35,735 in above-market interest on deferred compensation and perquisites valued at $30,900. The perquisites include life insurance, spousal travel, financial planning and wellness benefits.
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Spire, a natural gas utility based in St. Louis, reported a 13% increase in earnings per share, before extraordinary items, for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Its share price rose 19%.
If Sitherwood leaves Spire after a takeover, her golden parachute would be worth $13.9 million. That includes $6.3 million in severance and bonus, $5 million worth of stock and $2.5 million from a deferred income plan.
Sitherwood earned 44 times as much as the median Spire employee. Median pay for the company's 3,536 workers was $103,826.
Here's what St. Louis CEOs earned in 2018:
Meet the top-paid CEOs in St. Louis
29. Allied Healthcare Products Inc.

28. Peak Resorts

27. Reliv International

26. Avadel Pharmaceuticals

25. Enterprise Financial Services Corp.

24. Huttig Building Products, Inc.

23. Foresight Energy

22. Cass Information Systems

21. Build-A-Bear Workshop

20. Commerce Bancshares (John W. Kemper)

Read more about John Kemper's transition to CEO.
(Slide edited to correct decrease from last year's pay.)
19. Aegion Corporation

18. Esco Technologies Inc.

17. Spire

16. Commerce Bancshares (David Kemper)

15. Perficient

13. Edgewell Personal Care Co.

Edgewell Personal Care Co. is on the Fortune 1,000. It now has a new CEO and has shifted its headquarters to Connecticut.
12. Belden

Belden is on the Fortune 1,000. Read more about John Stroup's pay.
11. Olin

Olin is on the Fortune 500.ÌýRead more details about John Fischer's pay.
10. Reinsurance Group

Reinsurance Group is on the Fortune 500 list. Read more about Anna Manning's pay.
9. Energizer

8. Peabody Energy

Peabody is on the Fortune 500.ÌýRead more details about Glenn Kellow's pay.
7. Caleres

Caleres is on the Fortune 1,000. Read more about Diane Sullivan's pay.
6. Ameren

Ameren is on the Fortune 500 list. Read more details about Warner Baxter's pay.
(Slide edited to correct ratio of CEO pay to median pay.)
5. Arch Coal

Arch Coal is on the Fortune 1,000.ÌýRead more about John Eaves' pay.
4. Post Holdings

3. Mallinckrodt

Mark Trudeau, Mallinckrodt's CEO, has moved out of state in a restructuring of the company. Read more details about Trudeau's pay.
2. Emerson

Emerson is on the Fortune 500 list. Read more details about David Farr's pay.
1. Centene

Centene is on the Fortune 500 list. Read more details about Michael Neidroff's pay.