Yes, principle of time value of money says you need to discount future money. But deferred compensation is also deferred tax and it can be very useful to be abl

Yes, principle of time value of money says you need to discount future money. But deferred compensation is also deferred tax and it can be very useful to be able to reduce/avoid a big tax bill. Actual dollars? Sr Engineer base pay at $175k+. Mid level at 135k. There are plenty of formerly middle class engineers making over $300k a year including equity. People often discount startup equity while overlooking the very lucrative large tech company equity. (Fb, goog, etc). My source for this is both friends and hiring in this market. To be sure not every eng in sfba is paid this amount. But they probably could be if they were willing to optimize for comp.