Executive compensation at Inland Northwest-based publicly traded companies made up for lost ground and slow growth in recent years, increasing almost 18 percent on average in 2010, the largest percentage increase since 2006.

Some of the growth in 2010 was due to increases in stock and stock-option awards, though annual salaries and bonuses grew as well at an average clip of 11 percent.

The growth in executive pay in 2010 was a stark contrast to the previous two years, the Journal of Business' annual analysis of executive pay shows. In 2009, total executive compensation increased by 1.9 percent. The prior year, executive pay decreased by 3.6 percent, one of only two years—the other was 2000—that executive pay has decreased in the 15 years the Journal of Business has conducted the analysis.

Contributing heavily to the overall jump in executive pay was large increases in compensation for the top brass at Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake-based maker of automated meter-reading technology. The company's CEO Malcolm Unsworth tops this year's list, and the other four named executive officers appear in the top 10, with total compensation increases ranging from 95.1 percent to 438.6 percent. In contrast, only three of the company's five top executives were in the top 40 last year.

In the 2010 proxy statement Itron submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, the company said it reinstated annual and long-term incentive plans that had been suspended during "a difficult fiscal year in 2009." The company also increased salaries after a pay freeze in 2009.

In addition, as with many companies, the executive compensation at Itron is tied to the company's overall performance, and in 2010, Itron posted net income of $104.8 million, up from a net loss of $2.2 million in 2009.

The Journal's executive-pay analysis this year included 80 executives from 16 publicly traded companies based in the Inland Northwest. The information is gleaned from annual proxy statements those companies must file with the SEC.

Those executives received average total direct compensation of $906,280 in their employers' 2010 fiscal year. In all, 21 executives crested $1 million in total compensation, up from 16 executives above the $1 million mark the year before.

Factoring only annual salary and bonus pay, executives in the study received an average of $474,770.

Unsworth ascended to the top of the list with total compensation of about $5.1 million. Last year, he ranked seventh.

Potlatch Corp. Chairman, President, and CEO Michael J. Covey held onto the No. 2 spot on the list, with total income of just under $4.1 million.

Last year's top earner, Clearwater Paper Co. President and CEO Gordon L. Jones, fell to third on the list with total compensation of about $3.9 million. His income didn't decline, but it didn't increase as dramatically as that of Unsworth and Covey.

Rounding out the top five were Avista Corp. Chairman, President, and CEO Scott L. Morris, at just over $3.2 million, and Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. Chairman, President, and CEO Dennis E. Wheeler, at just under $3.2 million.

For the second consecutive year, Clearwater Paper CFO Linda K. Massman ranked as the top-paid female executive. At about $1.5 million in total compensation, Massman finished 11th overall.

CEOs who didn't make the top 40 list include Mines Management Inc.'s Glen M. Dobbs (41st), Red Lion Hotels Corp.'s Jon E. Eliassen (45th), Gold Reserve Corp.'s Rockne J. Timm (49th), Idaho Independent Bank's Jack W. Gustavel (51st), Revett Minerals Inc.'s John G. Shanahan (55th), Northwest Bancorporation Inc.'s Randall L. Fewel (61st), and Coldwater Creek Inc.'s Dennis G. Pence (80th).

Pence has appeared at the bottom of the list the last couple of years. Both years, he has taken an annual salary of $1 and accepted no bonuses.

Returning to the study this year is Sterling Financial Inc., which was left out of the analysis last year because it filed its 2009 proxy later than usual. Absent from the list is AmericanWest Bancorp., whose assets have been privately held since they were acquired by SKBHC Holding LLC late last year.

For purposes of the analysis, total direct compensation includes salary, bonuses and annual cash incentive pay, the annual value of long-term incentives such as stock options and restricted share grants, and perquisites.

The total compensation listed for executives is dramatically higher than what they actually pocketed. Disclosure rules approved by the SEC in 2006 require companies to divulge more information about the compensation packages provided to their top executives, but they also include estimates of what some forms of compensation are worth—or will be worth in the future. For example, amounts listed for grants of restricted stock and stock options use formulas to determine what the stock could be worth in the future for the executive.

The Journal doesn't include the gains executives earn in a single year from having past restricted-stock awards vest or from exercising past stock options. By adhering to the more stringent SEC disclosure rules, companies now include the current-year cost of such gains in their filings, so adding them in again would be duplicative.

That said, executives included in this year's analysis exercised stock options worth a total of $2 million and had total vesting stock gains of about $13.8 million. They also collectively have $74.4 million worth of stock that's not yet vested.