By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With its crisis of 2000 a distant memory and record profits around the world, Procter & Gamble Co. is rewarding its 90,000 employees with two free days off.

Cincinnati-based P&G said it would provide the one-time benefit to all employees globally. Workers can take either the time off or the cash equivalent, which works out to slightly less than 1 percent of each person's annual salary.

It's the first time in memory that P&G has provided the benefit, which will cost the company "tens of millions" of dollars, said Dick Antoine, global human resources officer.

Each year, the company gives about 2,000 employees, judged on special contributions, special awards of 50 shares of company stock. It will increase that to 3,000 employees this year.

But the vacation day award is different because it excludes only the three dozen or so top officers in the company.

P&G e-mailed the news to all of its employees late Tuesday morning in a message from chairman and chief executive A.G. Lafley.

"We've never before offered a company performance award such as this, but you've earned it," Lafley wrote.

P&G's sales, earnings and stock price have prospered during the last three years. From a low of less than $60 a share in mid-2000, the stock closed at $106.30 Tuesday.

Procter said last week that it earned $1.53 billion in its fiscal third quarter.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com