Lower salary for restricted stock?
I’ve been talking with some folks at Wayfair. The recruiter shared that “no one makes above $200k here, not even the founders. Everything is made up in bonus and restricted stock units.” Is this true? Seems hard to believe and it sounds like they would try match my current base salary through addition RSUs. This feels really fishy. Thoughts?
What's fishy about it?
You should ignore not even the founder part. Founders at google made $1, no excuse to pay everyone else same in base. Amazon has 160k limit too. Since rsu is not guaranteed and fluctuates, you should apply $1 in base = $2 or some other number you are comfortable with to compare.
Comp blend depends a lot on the maturity of the company (early stage, late stage) and especially if a company is or plans to go public. RSUs are always safer for the company than cash, helps keep employees motivated to stay around and work hard. I don't see anything fishy about what the recruiter is describing.
So base+bonus never exceed 200k, it is possible right as they use RSUs more
Base never exceeds $200k (or similar number) but bonus can carry you over. They definitely prefer RSU to make up the difference, especially at higher levels.