[muhfuhkuh]

They're having the same growing pains as Microsoft had in the mid- to late-90s. Everyone prior to Windows 95 had a LOT of options sitting in the wings waiting to be vested or for a galactically large liquidity event (like, say, the revolution of the Desktop PC), and everyone post windows 2000 were left with the big company sitting on hoards of cash and a stock price that will never go above their options value but maybe 2-5 bucks max.

Google has all of its earnings built into the stock price for more than a decade, so anyone they hire (unless it's a chief muckety-muck) is going to be even-steven in stock. So, Google has to differentiate on culture, salary, and benefits, which they can obviously do.

[apphacker]

From what I've heard Google actually pays less than average because you're working at "Google". Whatever that means.

[wololo]

laszlo bock always says that according to some very quantitative surveys they do, compensation is not the primary reason why googlers leave (impact is).