Who are the five top paid executives?

In a typical modern US corporation, the CEO and other top executives are paid contractual salary plus contractual bonuses, which usually have some performance criteria attached depending on the role of the executive. For example, the Sales Director's performance related bonus may be based on incremental turnover; a CEO's could be based on incremental profitability. Executives may also be compensated with a mixture of cash and shares of the company which are almost always subject to vesting restrictions. The vesting term refers to the period of time before the recipient has the right to transfer shares and realize value. Vesting can be based on time, performance or both. For example a highly paid CEO would get 1 million in cash, and 1 million in company shares (and share buy options used).