Can you define underpays its tech employees more specifically - salary or total comp?

I mean they don't have the same capital as a company like Amazon/Google/Facebook so obviously can't go toe to toe if that's who you are comparing against. However Shopify's equity compensation aligns with Tesla (underpay but employees earn on equity) probably more than made up and then some compared to all those companies if you have worked there for more than one year. If you just joined then yeah your equity packages just tanked - as did all the major tech companies.

Not OP but current employee.

They "underpay" compared to Google, etc and compared to the Bay. But Shopify is a Canadian company first (I'm in the US) and they pay me a salary well over the average for my area (double), not much less than what I was offered by other remote companies (within ~$10k) but pushed north of $200k/yr by adding stock.

We also recently received info on a new pay structure that basically lets us choose how much of our TC is $$$ and how much is stock. We're excited and people will be given raises. There are news articles you can read online.

Shopify also aims to be a "100 year" company. It means not paying in the top 10, but also not overworking employees or firing the bottom 10% every year.

As someone who isn't in the Bay... they pay just fine for new hires and for tenured employees once they finish raises.

I wonder if the job-hoppers in the bay area will realise before it is too late that they are participating in a bubble that will undoubtedly collapse (happening now maybe...), leaving them shocked at their inability to demand +20% per new job...