You get refreshers so, no, it's not just base once your initial grant runs out. In a normal case, especially early in your career, the refreshers are larger tha

You get refreshers so, no, it's not just base once your initial grant runs out. In a normal case, especially early in your career, the refreshers are larger than the initial grant as you get promotions and raises. This is not necessarily true if you've plateaued and is not necessarily true if your realized comp greatly exceeds your target comp. If your target comp is $500k per year but you're realizing $1000k per year due to stock growth then your refreshers will reflect the $500k rather than the $1000k.