5 Apple Inc

Average yearly salary: $110,902

Surprise surprise! One of the most sought after company of the world ranks only fifth in employee salaries. Apple Inc employs about 60400 people and was established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1^st 1976.

Apple Inc an American multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers is best-known for its hardware products such as the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

Apple has a reputation of a branding marvel. Every apple product is carefully designed and assembled for perfection. They were in the line of fire for unethical work practices in FoxConn recently. Although they pay their employees a little more than Google but why is it nowhere near the top paying companies in Silicon Valley? One of the best brands in the world should have work ethics matching their stature.

4. Cisco Systems

Average yearly salary: $105,562

Cisco Systems, Inc an American Multinational Corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipment. The company employs about 71825 people. Not many software engineers would like to work at a company which makes hardware so it’s no surprise that Cisco attracts employees by paying them some big bucks.

As part of a massive rebranding campaign in 2006, Cisco Systems adopted the shortened name "Cisco" and created "The Human Network" advertising campaign. These efforts were meant to make Cisco a "household" brand – a strategy designed to support the low-end Linksys products and future consumer products.

Cisco booked a lower than expected profit in 2011 and was forced to reduce annual expenses by $1 billion. Even though the company had to cut around 3000 employees they are still one of the highest paying companies in the market. Thumbs up guys.