Google employees land 10% pay hike

Google is to boost salaries for its 23,000 staff worldwide by 10% with an additional $1,000 (£620) "holiday bonus" in the New Year, in an effort to retain key talent from being poached by online rivals.

Google: offering staff 10% pay rise and bonuses
Google: offering staff 10% pay rise and bonuses

The generous payout, expected to be awarded in January, was announced in an internal memo to staff, but was leaked to the press by an unknown employee.

Google is one of the few media and technology companies to continue an aggressive hiring strategy during the recession.

According to figures from the search giant, it has hired at a faster pace than at any time in the past two years during the three months to September, when it recruited an additional 1,500 staff – a 7% rise in its workforce.

Reports suggest that up to 10% of Facebook staff members are former Google employees. The company is also likely to be heading off approaches from the newly launched search rival Microsoft’s Bing to poach its staff.

The internal email was first reported by breaking technology news site . According to the site, the email from Google chief executive Eric Schmidt to his global staff, said: "This salary increase is global and across the board — everyone gets a raise, no matter their level, to recognise the contribution that each and every one of you makes to Google."

In an official statement, Google said: "While we don’t typically comment on internal matters, we do believe that competitive compensation plans are important to the future of the company."

The search engine is the largest in the world, with almost two-thirds of market share of the internet search market. It generated $24bn during 2009 and makes $1m (£624,000) per hour.

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