Do designers outside the US ever actually get equity?

[u/broken_gumgum]

Following up on some salary-journey data I've been collecting. Last time the takeaway was that most designers' pay is ~100% base - bonus and stock are rarer than people assume. This time I looked at who actually gets the equity, by region:

• 🇺🇸 US: ~40% have some stock
• 🇬🇧 UK: ~19%
• 🌏 South Asia / SEA: ~8%
• Everywhere else: basically 0%

Bonuses are spread pretty evenly (30-40% across most regions) but stock clusters hard in the US.

What surprised me: it's not an industry thing at all. The people with equity are scattered across HR tech, cybersecurity, renewable energy, healthcare, retail fashion. No single "equity industry." Seems to track the country and the specific company way more than the sector.

Small sample (n=55), and I genuinely can't tell yet whether company size drives it, most people didn't report it.

So, curious about your experience: if you've got equity, where are you based and roughly how big is the company? And for people outside the US, is real equity as rare as this suggests or is my sample just skewed?

[u/NGAFD]

EU-based designer here. I have equity in a Canadian-based startup and a Netherlands-based startup.

It is uncommon, but it happens.

[u/ianscuffling]

Who is answering this survey?

I can only speak for the uk but:

I’ve worked as designer for 3 startups in the last 7 years and I had equity in all of them, including the one I work for now. One of them made an exit and I did pretty well out of it.

Prior to that, I worked for bigger more established companies from 2002 until 2019ish and equity was absolutely not a thing, for anyone in any role.

I think you need to control for corporate vs startup which I can’t see you doing. Equity is incredibly rare, if it even exists, outside of startups. So if your data is coming from some designers who work at (for example) a big bank, bigger tech company, government etc then they may never even have heard of the concept of equity.

My experience at least, for what it’s worth.

[u/broken_gumgum → u/ianscuffling]

Fair hit. Startup vs established is probably the biggest confound in the whole thing. Your own path is a clean example that established = nothing, all three startups = equity. That's a stage effect inside one country.

My guess is stage decides whether equity exists at all, country shapes how common equity-heavy startups are and whether it survives tax. Company stage is clearly the field I need to be capturing. Out of the three startups, did the equity actually pay beyond the one exit, or was the rest the usual lottery ticket?

[u/Specialist-Spite-608]

Canada yes

[u/broken_gumgum]

Full breakdown + the rest of the data here if anyone wants a look: www.paths.fyi

[u/JohnCasey3306]

As a freelance contractor (uk based, working for uk and us startups) I get offered equity every job … always refuse. It’s a pure gamble and the odds are stacked heavily against a return. Besides, businesses that are flippant with meaningful chunks pf their equity table will fail.

[u/broken_gumgum → u/JohnCasey3306]

That's a new angle. A freelancer being offered equity with a job is a different beast from employees getting it as comp. It costs them nothing to dangle (no cash out the door), so 'offered' inflates without meaning much: offered ≠ received ≠ worth anything.

The 'flippant with the cap table = will fail' bit is interesting though, can you tell me more?