The way I read it, his take-home pay is higher, but either he mis-valued his options as being worth more than his BigCo stock package, or (as is usually the cas

The way I read it, his take-home pay is higher, but either he mis-valued his options as being worth more than his BigCo stock package, or (as is usually the case) the value of the options is virtual until there's a liquidity event ... His old comp was paycheck + stock vesting (which doesn't appear in paychecks), his new comp is paycheck + (non-exerciseable options) = paycheck