While early proxy filings trickling show bonuses paid to most chief executives were lower in 2009, they also show many companies are tinkering with their performance goals and incentive plan design in 2010.

The changes are being driven by public pressure on executive pay and an uncertain climate that's making it difficult to set performance goals, according to a new report by compensation research firm Equilar Inc.

Filings so far show that bonuses paid to chief executives were down overall in 2009 compared to 2008. However, they aren't down nearly as sharply as indicated in earlier filings.

Median total bonus payouts for CEOs (including performance-based bonuses and discretionary cash awards) fell roughly 13 percent to $812,799 in 2009, according to an Equilar analysis of 232 companies with fiscal years ending between June 30, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2009, with annual revenues of at least $1 billion and a CEO in place for at least three years.

That's in contrast to preliminary data released a week earlier covering 180 companies, which had showed a 22 drop in median total CEO bonuses.

In fact, bonuses increased among early proxy filers with fiscal years ending in December. The 86 companies with FYEs in December saw a year-over-year jump in median total bonus payouts of 47 percent to $1.3 million, while the 146 companies with FYEs from June to November saw median total bonus payouts decline 29 percent to $689,000, according to the report, "Bonus Plan Design for 2010."

The median performance-based bonus payout fell 10 percent from $713,108 in 2008 to $639,950 in 2009. Those bonuses, which comprised an average of 82 percent of all bonus payouts received by CEOs last year, include disbursements from annual and multi-year incentive plans. The median value of discretionary cash awards fell 21 percent to $683,323 in 2009.

The report shows that CEOs in the capital goods and technology industries took harder hits than their peers in other fields. For those companies, the median CEO total bonus payout fell 41 and 53 percent respectively. In contrast, median total bonus payouts for services companies grew 21 percent.

Median total bonus payout for early filing financial companies jumped from $0 in 2008 to $576,294 in 2009, which Equilar notes that, for 2008, the number of CEOs receiving no bonus was higher than the number of chief executives receiving a bonus.

Slightly more CEOs saw no bonus at all in 2009. The total number of CEOs who got bonus payouts fell 3 percent to roughly 55 percent in 2009.

The report also shows that public pressure on executive pay and difficulty in setting performance goals in the current environment are driving new incentive plan practices, including an increase in the use of performance metrics such as working capital and cash flow, and new strategies designed to make goal-setting more manageable.

For example, Ingersoll-Rand's Feb. 5 8-K filing shows that the company's Compensation Committee approved a change in the financial metrics to be used to determine 2010 performance year AIM awards to the three metrics, equally weighted: earnings per share, available cash flow, and revenue growth. For 2009, only two metrics (EPS and ACF) were used, with each given equal weighting.

The number of companies adjusting performance goals continues to climb. For instance, companies including Barnes Group and Dynegy lowered their threshold targets.

Other companies, such as ACCO Brands Corp. and Avid Technology Inc., are creating incentive awards contingent upon the achievement of multiple performance criteria.

Some companies have implemented additional holding periods following the payout of performance incentives, such as TW Telecom Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

While many companies are moving from cash payouts to equity payouts for bonuses, Equilar notes that several companies have morphed their entire annual incentive plan from a cash-based plan to a full-fledged equity incentive plan. For example, CIGNA Corp. approved changes to its long-term incentive program to provide for a stock payout to align management's awards with shareholder interests.

Meanwhile, a number of companies, such as Forestar Group Inc., paid out bonuses in a combination of cash and equity.

In an effort to align pay with performance, many companies moved to a more performance-based compensation mix. For example, DiamondRock Hospitality redesigned its equity program for 2010 to include performance-based equity awards, instead of solely awarding time-based equity awards.

The complete report is available upon request.