[opportune]

Yes but you do still need to think about vesting schedules. If you are at a company that doesn't do uniform vesting, then e.g. $400k stock/ 4 years might be more like $50k this year, $100k next two years, $150k the last year. Not sure how levels.fyi handles this but I would say that is not really the same as +$100k/year TC during your first year, given that people can change companies often, get promotions and refreshers, etc. To me it's more like an automatic raise.

[vjeux]

In addition to that, RSUs are taxed at around 50% before you receive them and another 20% of the value it gained from when you received it to when you sold it. So the numbers in your bank account look less impressive than the ones on paper.

[compumike]

Yes, but to be fair to RSUs, this is no worse than having some additional ordinary income.

The 50% on receipt number comes from your marginal federal tax bracket plus state -- same as if the dollar value were additional gross (pre-tax) income.

The 20% on growth number (potentially 25-30% including state) is what you'd pay on capital gains -- same as if you'd taken this extra income as cash and invested it in anything.

[Thorrez]

RSUs are taxed the same as salary. If you don't like them gaining value, then sell them as soon as they vest, and that's 20% tax of $0.

[joshuamorton]

Just as an FYI, my understanding is that Google, FB, and MS all offer 25% annual vesting with no cliff, the exact vesting schedule depends (for Google, for example, it depends on the exact grant, but a 400K grant would vest monthly). Amazon offers a 5/15/40/40 backloaded vesting schedule, but cash bonuses in years 1 and 2 to compensate (sort of).

[opportune]

Maybe I don't know exactly what cliff vesting is, but while Microsoft doesn't backload vesting, it does do vesting in chunks (like once a year iirc). And as another commenter pointed out it doesn't kick in until 6 months. But at places like google the vesting is monthly and starts after the first month.

Also one quirk of microsoft is since they have a half-title promotion system, as I understand it, it's normal to get refreshers on years 1-3 through a 4 year vest after a half-title/one-level promotion.

[shitlord]

Amazon comp drops significantly after the 4th year, unless you happen to get promoted twice before the end of your 4th year.

[huac]

I know Google has no cliff, is that also true now for the others?

[joshuamorton]

My understanding is that Google dropped their cliff after facebook. I think MS is still on 6 months, but that's just their vest schedule.