Tech Equity Compensation

Aren't most stock compensations for tech workers done in dollar-valued equivalent at the time of vestment?

You're looking at it the wrong way. For better or worse, people are made an offer when they first start. Stock in a company that is "less of a sure thing" (earlier stage) is worth less. So, they must receive more of it to have it correspond to a certain amount of salary they might be missing out on. What happens later is in the future. It's like the employee is an angle investor.

I wonder if significant part of their compensation is stock as in FAANG companies

Employees that are paid common stock didn't put any money. They are also paid decent salary. It is like playing a lottery, but only with opportunity cost. Not sure what needs to be protected here.

Article claims all cash but sounds like probably with vesting for retention

Why is stock such a big portion of compensation for the big tech companies?

Give them some meaningful compensation in options.

They are cheating you, they want to keep you poor.The correct answers are: "We don't give you options, we give you RSUs and they start vesting after 90 days. Here's the cap table"Anything else is screwing you. Unless, course the RSUs are for preferred shares, that's real what it should be, but common seems a reasonable compromise given that investors think a dollar from them is worth more than a dollar from an employee and should be preferred.

We can assume that she/he is being compensated through stock/equity. So they are being paid - just not with a salary.

Maybe the takeaway is that employees should negotiate a stock component in their compensation package?