Again I have nothing against him making 20. Just don't claim that he somehow made a risk. He didn't and if that is the reason why someone should get stock then most people going to work every day should get stock.
He put capital (his time, not fully compensated) at risk.
then most people going to work every day should get stock.
Personally, I'd rather have it in salary. 0.05% of a 40-person company isn't going to motivate me worth shit. It has the opposite effect (uncanny valley). I'd much rather work for a hedge fund and be reasonably paid for my skills.
Unless it's substantial, equity is a bad sign for me. Why? Because 0.05% of a 40-person company ("checkbox equity") won't motivate me in the least, but it will motivate other people, which means I'm going to be competing (on hours, indignity, and suffering) against people who haven't done the math on their pathetic shares and are delusional and clueless. That's like wrestling a guy on PCP; it's better not to.
With that said I actually think stock options are a good incentive for all employees. It provides some reasonable guarantees on both parties. On the one hand the employee is given incentive to work hard because the more productive they are the better the company does and the better the stock does. Also it gives them something nice in case they get laid off and the stock goes up. Also the company sees those same benefits. The employee will probably work harder and more productive because they have more incentive to.