In a year that saw Microsoft's first-ever sales decline, the company's board trimmed Chief Executive Steve Ballmer's total pay for the fiscal year by 5.6 percent.

Ballmer received $1.27 million for fiscal 2009, which ended on June 30, compared with $1.34 million in fiscal 2008.

Other top executive officers also received cuts in total compensation for the fiscal year.

Here is the pay chart for five executive officers from a proxy statement Microsoft filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

From Pri0

In some cases, even though the executive's total compensation went down, his cash award went up from the previous year. Microsoft said that resulted from a change made to standardize the ratio of cash bonus to stock award each executive would receive. They are now eligible to get 20 percent of their bonus in cash and 80 percent in stock.

In the case of Stephen Elop, president of the Business division, his total compensation rose because he joined Microsoft halfway through the 2008 fiscal year.

Microsoft is careful to point out that the base salaries -- which in Ballmer's case went up -- was set in the first quarter of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2008, before the steep downturn in the economy.

Mark Murray, a Microsoft spokesman, also said, "I find this interesting when you compare how different companies do this. If you take a peer group, we pay far less of executive compensation in base salary and variable cash or cash bonus and far more of our executive compensation in stock award that essentially tie the executive’s compensation to the stock."

Here are the accompanying notes on each executive's performance from the proxy statement.

Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer:

"Mr. Ballmer’s participation in the Incentive Plan for fiscal year 2009 was limited to a range of 0% to 200% of his fiscal year 2009 base salary, payable in cash, consistent with our past practice and his request that we not award him equity compensation. ... For fiscal year 2009, Mr. Ballmer’s Incentive Plan award was $600,000 which was 90% of his base salary. This amount was recommended by the Compensation Committee to the Board based on his performance appraisal by the independent members of the Board and other information deemed relevant, including Mr. Ballmer’s performance against his individual commitments, the Company’s progress in key product development areas such as Windows and online search, his leadership in expense management which helped to offset the declines in revenue due to the economic downturn, and the financial performance of the Company relative to the 25 largest technology companies (measured by operating income)."

Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division:

"Under Mr. Bach’s leadership, E&D experienced strong performance in the Xbox platform, including unit console sales growing at 30%, year-over-year growth of 42% in online subscribers, and development of Xbox’s Project Natal technologies. In addition, there were solid results against our customer satisfaction goals, building key strategic partnerships, and strengthening the leadership of the Windows Mobile division to address slower progress in Windows Mobile. Consistent with the economy, however, the financial results for E&D were below goal, with operating income decreasing by $328 million. Based on his fiscal year 2009 performance, Mr. Bach received an Incentive Plan award of $5,600,000, which was 80% of his target award and 27% lower than his combined cash bonus and stock awards for fiscal year 2008."

Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft Business Division:

"During fiscal year 2009, Mr. Elop led MBD to improvements in developers targeting Office, progress in product development, a slight decrease in Office license unit volumes, and an overall increase in revenue from business customers, despite a difficult IT spending environment. The financial results for the Microsoft Business Division were below goal, with revenue decreasing by $35 million and operating income decreasing 2%. Based on his fiscal year 2009 performance, Mr. Elop received an Incentive Plan award of $4,200,000, which was 60% of his target award and 45% lower than his annualized combined cash bonus and stock awards for fiscal year 2008."

Chris Liddell, Chief Financial Officer:

"As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Liddell is responsible for leading Microsoft’s worldwide finance organization. Mr. Liddell helped lead company-wide efforts focused on cost reduction and greater efficiency that resulted in an approximately $3 billion reduction in expenses from our original fiscal year 2009 plan. Mr. Liddell’s contributions helped offset the impact of the worldwide economic downturn on Microsoft’s financial results, which included a 3% decrease in revenue and 9% decrease in operating income. Based on his fiscal year 2009 performance, Mr. Liddell received an Incentive Plan award of $2,975,000, which was 70% of his target award and 30% lower than his combined cash bonus and stock awards for fiscal year 2008."

Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer:

"Mr. Turner led his organization to strong results against our customer satisfaction goals. He helped increase internal efficiency through cost control efforts, including reductions in sales and marketing expenses. He also maintained the renewal rate of key accounts and led the creation of a new retail strategy. Under Mr. Turner’s leadership, Microsoft outperformed the market in 11 of Microsoft’s 13 global sales geographic regions. Microsoft’s revenues from the OEM channel, however, declined 16%. In the wake of the economic downturn, the financial results for the sales, marketing, and services organization were below goal, with net revenue and contribution margin each declining 3%. Based on his fiscal year 2009 performance, Mr. Turner received an Incentive Plan award of $4,760,000, which was 68% of his target award and 40% lower than his combined cash bonus and stock awards for fiscal year 2008."