There's a term that's used "not real money", and the stock-as-compensation is an example. There are plenty of examples of people working their asses off on the hope/promise/gamble that it will be rewarded with a high stock price and then the stock not reaching those soaring heights or worse the company runs out of runway and the stock is worthless. Now those people realize they were making a lot less money than they thought. There's also the larger than 0% chance that the market tanks and everyone's value goes kaput again leaving the employee high and dry. Let's also not discount those companies that require employees to work a minimum time in years before those options vest.
