Ford Motor Co., the world’s most profitable automaker, told salaried workers today they won’t receive raises this year, saying their compensation is commensurate with other large U.S. companies.

Ford won’t offer merit pay increases to its salaried employees because they are on par with companies such as General Motors Co., Pfizer Inc. and Boeing Co., Marcey Evans, a company spokeswoman, said in an interview today. Ford restored raises to its 20,000 U.S. salaried employees last year and will pay bonuses this year, Evans said.

Ford earned $6.37 billion in the first nine months of 2010, the most since 1998 and more than any other automaker. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company will report 2010 net income of $8.2 billion, the average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. New models like the Fiesta subcompact and the redesigned Taurus helped Ford boost U.S. sales 17 percent last year, more than the industry’s 11 percent gain.

“The economic recovery remains fragile and our competitors are becoming more aggressive,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, told salaried employees in a memo today. “In our most recent review of our salaried compensation against these benchmark companies, Ford base salaries in the U.S. and Canada were found to be competitive. Consequently, we are announcing there will be no 2011 merit pay increases for salaried employees.”

Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, is slated to negotiate a new contract with the United Auto Workers union this year for its 41,000 U.S. hourly employees. The UAW filed a grievance against Ford last year when it reinstated salaried raises, accusing the automaker of violating a promise of “equality of sacrifice” between hourly and white-collar workers.

That grievance is still being processed, said Evans, who declined to comment further on the matter.