Many of us have already dealt with a 20% haircut, at least on the RSU portion of compensation.

* Higher cost of borrowing is putting pressure on growth companies that relied on cheap capital

* Economic downturn makes it harder to do business and lowers stock prices, which makes up a big part of any 400K SWE package

* Tech companies can allow RSU grants to expire rather than implementing formal paycuts. Whereas companies in other sectors might lay off 5% of the workforce before giving everyone a 5% paycut, we may see a different trend in tech.