Tax system does not allow for that; employees need to be paid at least minimum wage per sector, not equity, otherwise tax people will shut them down and health

Tax system does not allow for that; employees need to be paid at least minimum wage per sector, not equity, otherwise tax people will shut them down and health insurance will not exist (it is paid as percentage of salary). Every year if you have equity you need to pay taxes on the appreciation of what you own, so if you have a small salary and some equity you have no money to pay the taxes on equity. Good developers will not work for small salaries and the startup will have no money to pay. And not the least, startups are shots to the Moon with the expectation that most will fail; you cannot do that in this case, if you guarantee the money there will be no motivation, if you don't guarantee any money there will be no funding. Investing is different in Europe, that's why there is no SV here.