Yes, it's the bonuses and stock options that make the compensation in SV ridiculous. If we compared just base salaries then SV would be ahead but comparisons wo

Yes, it's the bonuses and stock options that make the compensation in SV ridiculous. If we compared just base salaries then SV would be ahead but comparisons wouldn't be so silly. But all these sweet RSUs and cash bonuses that are standard in SV make their overall yearly compensation really insane (plus things like 50k sign up bonus... I got no sign up bonus when I moved to London from EU). I wonder why software engineers don't get those kind of bonuses / extra cash on top of base salary in London.