Equity grants were once reserved for C-suite executives, early startup hires and software engineers.
Not anymore. New stock sales and international tax regulations are driving U.S. companies to extend options to more rank-and-file workers. The number of sales employees receiving equity grants has grown by almost 30% since mid-2025, according to an analysis of 8,000 employee grants from 480 companies by payroll platform Deel. Marketing teams saw a 24% increase in the same period, while gains among software engineers, data and customer-support workers were more modest.
“I think it is very much becoming an expected part of [workers’] compensation, but it’s not the same thing as salary,” said Deel economist Lauren Thomas.
The prospect of being paid in shares, which can increase dramatically in value when the company’s stock does well, is becoming more attractive for workers who are otherwise dealing with stagnant wage growth, according to Thomas. Despite the risks associated with market volatility, more employees are looking to stock awards as a way to keep pace with inflation. The number of American workers who held stock grants grew from 10 million in the early 2000s to about 14 million in 2025, according to a study published in the International Review of Applied Economics.
Stock compensation can take years to vest, may be difficult to cash out and can become worthless if a company fails. But when it pays off, it can create far more wealth than wages alone, giving employees at large public companies a meaningful stake in corporate growth.
It is a gamble top earners have made for a long time. Stock awards make up almost three-quarters of CEO compensation and are a key reason their pay regularly towers over that of rank-and-file workers, according to Harvard Law School’s CEO Pay Study. Elon Musk’s $158 billion Tesla Inc. compensation package is entirely equity-based, meaning he can realize its full value only if the company’s stock rises and the automaker meets operational goals. At Microsoft Corp., about 90% of Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella’s $96.5 million compensation in fiscal 2025 was from company shares.
More companies are expanding those awards to lower-ranking staff. Within the tech industry, Microsoft, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, Amazon.com Inc. and Intel Corp. grant equity to their sales, marketing and human resources employees at the highest rates, according to an analysis by Revelio Labs economist Jakob Brounstein. Apple Inc., Google, Facebook, Intuit Inc. and Amazon are the most likely to issue grants to their business and finance teams, Brounstein found. Overall, those groups are the least likely to get equity compensation, he added. Software engineers historically received the most grants, Deel said.
Not all companies are expanding stock-based compensation. Autodesk Inc. Chief Financial Officer Janesh Moorjani recently told Bloomberg that the software company has reduced equity grants as a proportion of overall revenue.
“It’s an economic cost to shareholders, so we need to manage it like any other cost,” Moorjani said.
Still, even workers outside North America are getting more of their pay in shares. In Germany and the U.K., tax changes have made equity compensation easier to offer. The number of workers receiving stock awards rose 62% in Germany and 51% in India between the first half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, compared with 29% in the U.S., Deel found.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.