Google staff get 10% pay rise

TECHNOLOGY FIRM Google gave its employees an early Christmas present when it announced it would give staff a pay rise.

Full and part-time employees throughout the business are to get a 10 per cent increase in salary from January 1st, 2011. The company has also promised to pay staff a cash bonus this Christmas.

The pay increase was announced in an internal memo circulated to staff. The confidential e-mail from chief executive Eric Schmidt also informed employees that there would be some changes to the bonus structure.

"We've heard from your feedback on Googlegeist and other surveys that salary is more important to you than any other component of pay," the e-mail, which was published on Business Insider, said.

“To address that, we’re moving a portion of your bonus into your base salary, so now it’s income you can count on, every time you get your paycheck [sic].”

Google employs almost 1,700 people in Ireland and had almost 20,000 full-time staff worldwide at the end of last year. In the third quarter of this year, the company added more than 1,500 employees to its payroll.

Google was saying little about the leaked e-mail yesterday, issuing only a short statement.

“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 tech company reported revenues of $7.29 billion (€5.28 billion) for the three months to September 30th, 2010, some 23 per cent higher than the same quarter a year earlier.