Meet 5 highest paid CEOs of the US

At a time when the global economy is desperately trying to keep another impending slowdown at bay, chief executives of some big companies are getting millions of dollars as pay packets.

For the fifth year, the Wall Street Journal partnered with Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, on its annual survey of CEO Compensation.

This year's study includes the 300 largest US public companies by revenue that filed their definitive proxy statements between May 1, 2011 and April 30, 2012.

Click NEXT to read about five top paying CEOs of the US.

Rank 1: Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc
Total compensation: $378 million

Apple chief executive Tim Cook topped the list of the best-paid CEOs in the US in 2011.

Cook earned $900,000 for his annual salary and $900,000 for his annual incentives.

But he scooped up $376 million in restricted stock grants, based on Apple's stock price at the time.

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Apple board granted Cook one million restricted stock units as a 'promotion and retention award'.

Apple said that 50 per cent of the stock award is scheduled to vest in 2015 and the other 50 per cent in 2021, subject to Cook's continued employment with the company.

Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs took three medical leaves before stepping down and in all the three occasions Cook had filled in for him.

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Rank 2: Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle
Total compensation: $76 million

Another Silicon Valley big gun, the founder and head of software company -- Oracle, Larry Ellison, came in second place with less than a fifth of Cook's pay, at $76 million.

According to Wall Street Journal survery, he received a $13.3-million bonus and stock options worth $62.7 million, not a salary.

He has been ranked at number 2 position for the last three years in the survey.

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Passionate about buying land, Ellison, co-founder and chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, has acquired some of most beautiful houses and land since the 1990's.

Now, he plans to sell the Woodside horse farm at a whopping $19 million, according to Real Estalker.

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Rank 3: Leslie Moonves, CEO, CBS: Television broadcaster
Total compensation: $69 million

Moonves' compensation was up 29 per cent from the prior year.

His pay included a $30 million annual bonus, stock options valued at $27.3 million and types of restricted stock collectively valued at $8.5 million.

Moonves has been in the top five of the survey for past three years.

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Moonves served as co-president and co-chief operating officer of Viacom, Inc., the predecessor to CBS Corporation, from 2004 until the company split on December 31, 2005.

Prior to that he had been in a series of executive positions for CBS since July 1995.

He is also one of the board of directors at ZeniMax Media.

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Rank 4: Ronald Johnson, CEO, JCPenney
Total compensation: $53 million

Johnson, the former head of Apple's retail-store unit, took over the reins of JC Penney Co. in November last year.

According to the survey, he received a grant of 1.66 million shares of restricted stock, valued at $52.6 million as a compensation for the restricted Apple stock that he left behind.

The bulk of Johnson's compensation stemmed from a grant of 1.66 million shares of restricted stock, valued at $52.6 million.

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JCPenney said that the grant was intended to compensate Johnson for Apple restricted stock he left behind.

For now, that looks like a bad trade for Mr. Johnson. He forfeited 250,000 restricted-stock units at Apple, which would be valued at $133 million.

More than half of those shares would have vested earlier this year, allowing Mr. Johnson to sell them.

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Rank 5: Sanjay Jha, CEO, Motorola Mobility
Total compensation: $46.6 million

Jha's compensation includes stock options valued at $34.2 million and restricted stock valued at $9.4 million.

Before joining Motorola, Sanjay Jha was the chief operating officer of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

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