[jcranmer]

The number I've not seen that I most want to see is the amount of share buybacks compared to the number of shares the company gives to its employees as RSUs or stock options.

Given that tech salaries tend to have a sizable pay component made up of stock, my gut feeling is that share buybacks are in large part a roundabout way to pay their employees.

(Now, let's also go fix the laws that make it tax-advantaged to pay people via such an indirect manner.)

[likpok]

Is it tax-advantaged? My impression is that RSU costs count as cash at grant time, which is a good deal (for the company) when the stock is going down but a bad deal when the stock is going up. The RSUs you get are counted as ordinary income when they vest.

Whether this is a good deal for the employee is a bit complicated: you're effectively holding stock for 4 years but taxed at ordinary income rates (as opposed to long term capital gains). On the other hand, if the stock goes up you've locked in being paid substantially above market. During the hot market times this effectively was an option: if they stayed they got stock granted at a low price, but they could leave if a different company was paying more.

Private companies can offer ISOs which do have a nice tax treatment, but this is all predicated on public company buybacks where that doesn't apply.