How stock-based pay works for monday.com employees

What stock-based pay actually means

At monday.com, stock-based pay is not just a perk tacked onto salary. It is part of the company’s broader compensation mix for some roles, and it ties employee pay to a public SaaS business that trades on Nasdaq under MNDY and serves more than 250,000 customers worldwide. The company, headquartered in Tel Aviv, reported $1.232 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue, up 27% year over year, with a 14% non-GAAP operating margin. That scale matters because equity in a growing public company can create real upside, but only if you understand how the grant works in practice.

The first thing to remember is that “equity compensation” is an umbrella term, not a single benefit. A stock grant can mean options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, an employee stock purchase plan, performance shares or another share-based award. Some forms give you the right to buy shares later, some deliver shares after you stay long enough, and some depend on company or individual performance. The headline number in an offer letter is only the starting point.

Vesting is where the value becomes real

The biggest mistake employees make is treating equity like cash already earned. It usually is not. Most awards vest over time, which means you earn them gradually by staying employed and, in some cases, by meeting performance goals. If you leave before vesting is complete, you can lose part of the grant even if the stock has risen.

That timing matters even more at a company like monday.com, where the equity story is tied to growth and market expectations at the same time. The company reported 51,551,462 ordinary shares issued and outstanding as of June 30, 2025, and 51,160,822 ordinary shares outstanding as of December 31, 2025. Those figures show that the share count is not fixed in the way employees often assume when they first see a grant size. Vesting tells you when you actually get something usable; the changing share count tells you that your slice of the company can move over time.

For anyone evaluating an offer, the right question is not only “How many shares?” but “Over how long, and on what schedule?” A four-year vesting period with a one-year cliff looks very different from a shorter grant or one tied to milestones. If the company has already reset its valuation, a grant can still be meaningful, but it may need more time to compound before it feels valuable in dollar terms.

Liquidity is the difference between paper value and usable money

Because monday.com is a public company, employees can at least see a market price every day. That is a major difference from private-company equity, where shares can be valuable on paper but hard to sell. Still, public does not mean instantly liquid for every employee. You may have to wait for vesting, comply with trading windows and think about whether you want to hold or sell once shares are available.

This is where the gap between headline grant and real value becomes obvious. A grant can look large in an offer conversation, but if the stock price falls, your proceeds can shrink quickly. A grant that vests over several years also exposes you to company-specific risk for a long stretch: product execution, customer retention, margin pressure and broader market sentiment all affect what that equity is worth when you can finally use it.

monday.com’s own results show why employees should think in ranges, not fantasies. The company said it could not forecast GAAP operating income without unreasonable efforts because share-based compensation is too variable to predict cleanly. That is a management-level reminder that equity is not just a paper benefit for workers; it is a real cost in the business model, and it can move around with headcount, hiring plans and stock performance.

Dilution is the hidden cost inside the cap table

One reason equity feels generous at fast-growing companies is that it spreads the idea of ownership widely. The downside is dilution. As more shares are issued to employees, the ownership percentage behind each grant can shrink, even if the number of shares in your award does not change. That is why the share count in the company’s filings matters: 51.55 million shares outstanding in mid-2025, then 51.16 million at year-end, gives you a sense of the capital structure employees are participating in.

The practical question for workers is not whether dilution exists, because it does, but whether the company is creating enough value to offset it. monday.com’s fiscal 2025 revenue growth and 14% non-GAAP operating margin suggest a business that is scaling while still investing heavily in the model. That can support equity value, but it does not guarantee it. If you are an engineer, product manager or salesperson, dilution is part of the trade-off for working at a growth-stage public software company: you accept that your ownership slice can be thin, in exchange for the chance that the whole pie gets larger.

Taxes can turn a good grant into a complicated one

Equity is also where workers run into tax surprises. Different award types are taxed differently, and the timing matters. Stock options, restricted stock, RSUs, ESPPs and performance shares do not all create tax bills at the same moment, which means the grant value you see in an offer may not match the amount you actually keep.

That is why the structure matters as much as the size. A grant that sounds larger may create a bigger tax event when it vests or is exercised. A discounted purchase plan can look attractive, but it can still trigger tax consequences that lower the effective gain. Before accepting or relying on the value of any award, employees should ask when taxes are due, what happens at vesting, and whether there is enough cash to cover withholding or exercise costs.

At monday.com, that question is especially relevant because the company says some roles are eligible to participate in its equity incentive program, which means the details are not uniform across the workforce. Employees should not assume a sales package works the same way as an engineering package or that every grant is an RSU. The award type drives the tax treatment, not the job title.

Questions worth asking before you sign

The cleanest way to evaluate stock-based pay is to treat it like a contract, not a slogan. Before accepting an offer or trying to value an existing grant, ask:

• What type of equity is this, options, RSUs, restricted stock, an ESPP or another award?

• What is the vesting schedule, and is there a cliff?

• What happens if I leave before vesting is complete?

• When do taxes apply, and what is the withholding method?

• Can I sell immediately after vesting, or are there trading restrictions?

• How often does the company grant equity refreshers?

Those questions matter at monday.com because the company’s public filings show how material share-based pay is to the business itself. In the first six months of 2025, monday.com reported $87.603 million in share-based compensation expense, up from $63.166 million in the same period of 2024. That is not a side note. It is a sign that equity is woven into the company’s labor model and financial reporting.

The real lesson for monday.com employees

For workers at monday.com, equity should be read as a long-term bet on the company’s execution, not as guaranteed wealth. The business has scale, public-market liquidity and enough growth to make stock-based pay worth serious attention. But the real value depends on vesting, tax treatment, share count and the stock price when you can actually use the award.

That is the uncomfortable truth hidden inside most compensation packages: the number on the offer letter is not the number in your pocket. At a company with a reset valuation and a public share price that can move every day, understanding the mechanics is the difference between a thoughtful career decision and an expensive misunderstanding.