I think this is a great point. You need some way to account for what the stock has done over the period. My understanding of tax is that escrowed shares (commo

I think this is a great point. You need some way to account for what the stock has done over the period. My understanding of tax is that escrowed shares (common for longer grants) aren't beneficially owned by the employee until the vesting expires, at which period the income is considered "earned" since it's yours (i.e. you can spend it), and taxed. This means tech salaries are being somewhat artificially inflated by the huge run-up in general US equities (stock market). If the market is flat/down over the coming years, you're going to see these numbers crater for no reason other than that GOOG didn't double/triple over the past decade.