---
title: Equity Compensation Plans
summary: Employer-provided stock or stock-equivalent compensation (stock options, ESPPs, restricted stock, phantom stock, SARs) — a US-specific category, distinct from the ownership-transferring structures (ESOPs, employee ownership trusts) this wiki otherwise tracks.
---

**Equity compensation** is employer-provided stock or stock equivalents, used across several distinct structures (stock options, employee stock purchase plans, restricted stock, phantom stock, stock appreciation rights) each with its own tax treatment. It's a US-specific category.

Worth distinguishing from [Employee Stock Ownership Plans](employee-stock-ownership-plans.md) and [Employee Ownership Trusts](employee-ownership-trusts.md): those transfer real, often majority, ownership and governance rights to employees collectively. Equity compensation plans are typically individual incentive-pay instruments layered on top of ordinary corporate governance — a narrower, less democratic mechanism, even where broadly distributed.

## Further reading

- [Equity compensation — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_compensation)
- [Employee stock ownership — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_stock_ownership)

## See also

- [Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)](employee-stock-ownership-plans.md)
- [Employee Ownership Trusts](employee-ownership-trusts.md)
- [Worker Cooperatives](worker-cooperatives.md)
- [Economic Democracy](economic-democracy.md)
