Employee Benefits

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Employee Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefits

12. Employee Benefits:

The Company’s employees are participants in the Geospace Technologies Corporation’s Employee’s 401(k) Retirement Plan (the “Plan”), which covers substantially all eligible employees in the United States. The Plan is a qualified salary reduction plan in which all eligible participants may elect to have a percentage of their compensation contributed to the Plan, subject to certain guidelines issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The Company’s share of discretionary matching contributions was approximately $0.7 million, $0.6 million and $0.5 million in fiscal years 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

The Company’s stock incentive plans in which employees may participate are discussed in Note 13 to these Consolidated Financial Statements.

The Company’s employees are also participants in the Geospace Technologies Corporation Fiscal Year 2012 Bonus Plan (the “Bonus Plan”). Every employee of the Company is eligible to participate in Tier I of the Bonus Plan except for its employees in the Russian Federation, who participate in a local plan. Under Tier I, employees share proportionally in the Company’s profit based on each employee’s relative payroll. The Tier I bonus pool is established by accruing 14.5% of consolidated pretax profits (before bonus) above a specified range. Selected employees are eligible to participate in Tier II of the Bonus Plan, which applies after Tier I is fully funded. The Tier II Bonus pool is established by accruing 14.5% of consolidated pretax profits (before bonus) within a specified range. Under Tier II, participants share in the bonus pool based on their respective working groups meeting predefined goals. The Company recorded bonus expense of $5.7 million, $4.2 million and $3.3 million for the fiscal years 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.