This isn't really the reason that they don't give stock options like they do in USA for startups, though. I think it's a little unfair to say that you're taxed

This isn't really the reason that they don't give stock options like they do in USA for startups, though. I think it's a little unfair to say that you're taxed at ~45%; as far as I'm aware exercised options are taxed as income at the value they have when you exercise, not at a flat rate like capital gains. Beyond that, companies probably don't really care about giving employees a big tax bill, and you would only get taxed 25% on the capital gains when you sell the stock you've gained from exercising (after some amount of time, I think 1 year). It's fine for early stage startups that have a low valuation, although for later stage startups and established companies it would lead to a larger initial tax bill. A bigger reason from the startup perspective as to why you don't give options to employees is because you become a voting member of the company and have to sign off on major changes (via a notary). Many startups skirt this issue by giving you "virtual options" which turn into money directly after some exit event, as if you got a bonus, and some startups let you pseudo-exercise by allowing you to put the exercised options into a pool controlled by a member of the board or company. It's a lot more restricted compared to USA (it would be nice to be able to exercise really early when the company is tiny so your tax bill is low, or do something like an 83B election) but it's not that onerous and there are ways to get around some of the worst of it.