[Someone1234]

Are you an employee or investor? If you're receiving equity then you're an investor (even if your only investment is theoretically lost wages). If you are only receiving wages (and or bonuses/benefits) then you're just an employee.

As an investor you need to come at it like an investor: Is this business a good investment of those lost wages? Are they growing? Does the business model make sense?

As an employee: You'll never be rewarded for your "loyalty." They won't make it up to you later. If you are being chronically underpaid you should consider finding another job. A lot of startups churn through tons of inexpensive employees, and few if any are later rewarded.

[djmill]

My equity is extremely small, if not negligible. The company continues to grow, but the engineering teams grow slower than other parts of the company. This puts more and more strain on engineering as work continues to pile on. The good news (and the bad news) is there's never a lack of work. I feel like slave labor for being a tech lead for bottom 35 percentile pay in the area.