In 1999, Bonnie Brown wasn't in a position to haggle over a salary. Recently divorced and living with her sister, when Google offered her a job as a part-time masseuse, she took it. It paid $450 (£218) a week – plus a pile of stock options.

Five years later, shortly after Google floated on the stock market, Ms Brown ditched the day job and cashed in most of those options. The stock had doubled in value by then – to about $170 a share – easily enough to bag Ms Brown a multi-million-dollar fortune.

Moreover, since then, through the options she held back, Ms Brown's net worth has risen in step with Google's soaring market capitalisation.

The story is far from unique – even if most of Google’s millionaires are software gurus and sales whizzes, rather than masseurs. It is estimated that at least 1,000 employees have made at least $5 million from the online advertising company’s seemingly inexorable rise.

According to a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google staff and former workers are holding options they can cash in today worth more than $2 billion. A further $4 billion exists in stock and options that can not yet be vested.

The group's backers also struck lucky. It is estimated that Sequoia, the VC group, invested $12.5 million in Google. The stake was worth $1.5 billion when it floated in 2004 – a return of 120 times on its original bet.

But even those sums are eclipsed by those earned by Google's biggest winners. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin may earn a token annual salary of $1 – but they each own stock worth about $20 billion.

For those Google footsoldiers who have cashed in all their options, the only regret can be that they didn't hold out a little longer.

Since 2004 Ms Brown's net worth has continued to climb, with those options she held on to – contrary to the advice of her financial advisors at the time – ballooning in value. Google shares recently hit an all-time high of $747.24 – up nearly 900 per cent from their debut price.

“I saved enough stock for a rainy day, and lately it’s been pouring,” Ms Brown told The New York Times.

She now owns a large house in Nevada but spends time travelling the world overseeing the charitable foundation she founded with her Google windfall.

She’s also looking for a publisher for her memoir – working title: Giigle: How I Got Lucky Massaging Google.

And as you’d expect, these days, at least once a week, Ms Brown gets her own private massages.

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