Hacker News Reader

Salary no. Total comp can be 100% or more of salary - they pay people in stock.

It's still not equivalent, in my experience.

People on the same rung of the "tech ladder" as those on the rung of the "traditional ladder" are compensated less in total and also frequently in any given dimension (e.g. salary, stock, whatever).

Okay, but what is the point of saying that base comp tops out at just over 200k? Quite often people with 200k bases make 500k+ total comp, so it is very misleading to focus on the base. After all Sundar Pichai's base is $652,500, but total comp is 200 million ...

Even that's not quite true, Pichai's annual comp is likely much lower than that, since his 200m grant is over some number of years. (Which is to say, talking about compensation is confusing).

"Quite often" is controversial at best.

I think it depends on your definition of "quite common". 100% of the time? No. 5% of the time, also no.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com