So is that why companies issue options instead of direct equity because it spares the employees the hassle of dealing with actual ownership issues (K-1s, additi

So is that why companies issue options instead of direct equity because it spares the employees the hassle of dealing with actual ownership issues (K-1s, additional taxes, etc)? The problem with looking at just salary is that salaries all tend to cap out (in my area, Seattle, you'll be hard pressed to find anything above $160k, when you get to that point compensation really starts to skew in favour of equity - especially as RSUs or Options - sometimes an order of magnitude greater than salary (e.g. "Partner"-level rank at Microsoft is easily $1m/yr in RSUs, but only about $200k/yr in salary.