Lower increases in the value of their pension plans led to a drop in overall compensation for three top executives of Automatic Data Processing. That included CEO Gary Butler who saw his pay decline to $8.9 million for fiscal 2011, down from $9.1 million the prior year.

Those amounts were largely offset by an increase in the value of stock awards to $2.4 million, an 71.4 percent rise from $1.4 million the prior year. His non-equity performance-based compensation also rose, reaching $2.5 million in 2011, compared to $2 million.

CFO Christopher Reidy was the only one of the four named executives who had pay reported last year to receive an increase in total compensation. His 2011 pay was $2.1 million, up from $2 million in 2010. Increases in his income from stock and option awards and performance-based compensation countered the performance of his pension.

Compensation for president and COO Carlos Rodriguez fell to $1.9 million from $2.1 million. Regina Lee had 2011 compensation of $2.19 million, a drop of about $2,400 from the prior year. Lee is president of employer, small business and national account services, Steven Anenen, president of the dealer services division, received total pay of $1.7 million. He was not a named executive in 2010.