Google (GOOG) has decided to give every employee a 10% raise for 2011 and build a portion of bonuses into base salaries. The company will also give each employee a $1,000 "gift," according to Business Insider.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote to employees, "We've heard from your feedback on Googlegeist and other surveys that salary is more important to you than any other component of pay (i.e., bonus and equity). 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."

There has already been a great deal of speculation about why the huge search company would take these actions. Most settles around the fact that the bidding for talent in the tech world has become fierce among the top companies. This would seem to be flimsy reasoning. An additional $10,000 or $20,000 a year is not going to keep the most talented people at the company. Google also reset the value of stock options in December 2009, another financial reward for its workers.

The answer may be very simple. The company had a great year.