[nissimk]

What about eliminating all of the risks that employee stock holders own:

  Dilution
  Liquidation preference
  Change of control

Investors get terms to protect them from these scenarios, but employee stockholders do not.

If your market salary is x and startup wants you to work for x-y cash + z equity/options/rsu, then there should be multiple scenarios in the contract when z shares will deliver you y * time worked in cash.

The thing that is so messed up is that in an actual liquidation event employee salary payable is the most senior level in the capital structure. If you are getting people to trade part of their salary for funny money it's better to have more scenarios where they are made whole than more scenarios where they hit the jackpot.