The median compensation for chief executives of 200 major U.S. companies fell marginally to $6.95 million in 2009, the Wall Street Journal said, citing an analysis by Hay Group management consultancy.

The median value of salaries, bonuses, long-term incentives, and grants of stock and stock options for the chief executives fell 0.9 percent, the Journal said.

It was only the third time since 1989 that total direct compensation has fallen for U.S. chief executives, the newspaper said.

In March, Reuters reported that U.S. consumer, financial and technology companies slashed bonuses for their chief executives by more than half in 2009, as companies moved to more closely tie executive pay to performance.

Equilar, which examines compensation practices, said preliminary data from corporate proxy filings show that the median CEO bonus payments fell 21.9 percent to $689,000 in 2009 from $882,000 in 2008.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

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