About how old is Lex in relation to Lois and Clark? How long has he been a public figure/major player in the business world?

The general assumption seems to be that in Season 1 Lois is about 26 and Clark is about 28--is this correct?

Any help on these questions would be very helpful!

Lois is given to have been born in 1967, Clark's birthdate is Feb 28, 1966. We aren't given a birthdate for Luthor, but the actor was born in 1949.
In 1993, the start of season I, Clark was 27, Lois was 26, Luthor was probably 44.

Yeah, it never says directly, but I think it hints that he's mid to late 40's at least.

In S4, in Shadow of a Doubt, we meet Leslie Luckabee, who is Lex's son. He appeared to be in his 30's so, I'd guess that would put Lex, in S1 at the minimum in his late 40's. Maybe early 50's. He didn't look 50ish, but with skilled surgery, etc

c.

In "Ides of Metropolis" Lex recalls hiring Henry Harrison for LexCom, who then worked for him for 20 years before being fired within a month of being eligible for retirement with full pension. This means that Lex started LexCom either when he was very young (early 20s), or that he himself in his late 40s, early 50s. Taking that into consideration, let's discuss what we learned about Lex from his two sons. Lex Jr, was already discussed, but Jaxon Xavier was born Nov 12, 1962 according to VD, making him 3.5-4 years older than Clark.

If Lex had Xavier when he was 20, Lex would have been at least 49 in 1993, when the series began. If Lex Jr was older than that, then Lex had to be at least in his early 50s at that point and probably twice Lois's age.

Never really thought about it in much detail, but this? Twice her age has squick-factor.

B

For what it's worth Lane Smith who played Perry White was 57, but they have him turn 50 during season 1. The actor playing Jimmy is also a little older than his intended age, so probably Luthor is meant to be around 40 or a bit younger.

Although maybe I should just assume they were not stricly age casting beyond Dean Cain (who was born 5 months after their birth date for Superman). Terri Hatcher was actually a year and a half older than Dean Cain, so the general trend seems to have been to cast actors younger then they actually were.

Maybe Jaxon was born first. Also, maybe Jaxon was born when Lex was still a teenager.

Considering that Lex did the whole creating a replica of her apartment, the age difference between him and Lois is the least of the squicky factors.