You already have the raw salary tables on Snake Signals, so this week I’m skipping specific £/$ figures and sticking to what’s more useful: directional changes, percentages, and how the cash vs equity mix shifts by stage.
What’s changed since 2024 and 2025 (and what 2026 looks like)
1) Base salary growth has cooled, but hasn’t reversed.
Ravio’s UK software engineer data shows 2025 salary growth slowed to +1.6%, after +8.5% the year before. That’s the “post-hype normalization” pattern: the big jump happened, then things stabilized.
2) Pay reviews across European tech are basically locked at ~5%.
Ravio’s 2026 Compensation Trends report says median annual salary increases held steady at 5.0% for the second consecutive year. The more important nuance: only 23% of employees received an in-role pay rise, while promotion increases were much larger, with a median promotion increase of 22.3%. Translation: a lot of comp movement now happens via leveling and promotions, not annual inflation bumps.
3) Startup cash moved up in 2025, equity stayed disciplined.
Carta’s H1 2025 startup compensation report: startup salaries rose, while equity packages remained static.
A Carta deck summary also highlights that the average initial equity grant is ~50% smaller than late 2022. So the market didn’t “return” to 2021–2022 equity generosity, even when hiring picked up.
That’s the 2026 vibe in one line: cash has crept up, equity is tighter, and promotions are where the big jumps live.
How compensation differs by stage (pre-seed → Big Tech)
Below is the pattern you should expect, even if any individual company breaks it.
Pre-seed
Cash: usually constrained.
Equity: meaningful percentages, because the company is small and the option pool is being created or topped up.
UK data from SeedLegals: many UK startups set aside 5–15% for the option pool, with 10% as the median.
Ravio’s equity guide also notes early-stage employee allocations often fall in the 5–15% range (seed to Series A).
Seed
Cash: improves, because modern seed rounds are larger than they used to be.
Index Ventures points out seed rounds can now look like “small Series A” rounds, giving more flexibility on hiring and salaries.Equity: still meaningful, but more structured, and often less “wild west” than pre-seed.
Series A
Cash: usually steps up again (more budget, more hiring plan, more competition).
Equity: percent grants tend to compress as dilution stacks.
Carta’s founder ownership data shows how quickly dilution bites early: after seed, the median founding team owns 56.2% collectively; by Series A it’s 36.1%.
That dilution is exactly why option grants as a percentage start to shrink.
Series B
Cash: more competitive, especially for senior hires.
Equity: smaller percentages, but more likely to include refreshers and retention grants.
Battery explains refresh grants typically show up around the two to three-year mark as employees’ initial grants vest.
Also, by Series B the median founding team ownership drops to ~23%, which tells you how much the cap table has shifted.
Series C+
Cash: tends to be closest to Big Tech, especially for senior talent.
One analysis cites late-stage startups paying 31–34% more for senior talent than early-stage peers.Equity: smaller percentages, but generally lower perceived risk, plus more structured refresh cycles.
Pave notes that around 50% of private companies in the 500–3,000 employee bucket have switched to RSUs as the most common equity vehicle.
Big Tech
Cash: strong, but often the comp story is “salary + bonus + RSUs,” with RSUs doing the heavy lifting.
Equity: tiny percentage of an enormous company, but high confidence in value and liquidity mechanics (compared to early stage).
How salaries and equity evolve as a startup raises
Salary progression
Step changes often come at rounds, not annually. When a company raises, it re-levels, hires aggressively, and adjusts bands to compete.
In calmer markets, annual pay rises hover around ~4–5%, but promotion jumps are materially higher (Ravio’s median 22.3% promotion increase is the clearest example).Equity progression
Your percentage usually shrinks by stage, because the cap table is being diluted and option pools are managed more tightly.
But the expected value of equity can still increase as the company derisks and valuation rises.
The big 2026 change: initial grants are smaller than 2022, and companies are leaning more on refresh and retention strategy rather than giving huge entry grants.
Practical: how to compare offers without fixating on numbers
If you’re choosing between pre-seed, seed, A, B, C+, and Big Tech, ask these questions:
Equity type: options or RSUs, and what triggers liquidity.
Grant basis: percent vs number of shares, and what fully diluted means.
Option pool: size today (10% median in UK SeedLegals dataset is common), and whether it’s being refreshed soon.
Refresh policy: do they do refresh grants at 2–3 years (common in later stages).
Dilution expectations: Carta’s fundraising guide cites median dilution figures around 18.8% at seed and 17.9% at Series A (Q1 2025).
Promotion velocity: does the company promote quickly when you’re operating at the next level, or do titles lag forever.
For hiring managers, the same framework works in reverse: if you can’t win on cash at early stage, you win on equity clarity, refresh design, promotion velocity, and transparent progression.
Quick Python watch
A few releases in the last 7 days that are actually relevant to teams shipping:
uv 0.11.6 released Apr 9, 2026.
pydantic-ai 1.81.0 released Apr 14, 2026.
Kedro 1.3.1 released Apr 7, 2026.
OpenTelemetry FastAPI instrumentation 0.62b0 released Apr 9, 2026.
Outro
2026 comp is not a straight “up or down” story. It’s more structured:
annual increases are steady at ~5% in many markets,
promotions are where the real jumps happen,
startup equity is more disciplined than 2022,
and the cash vs equity balance shifts dramatically by stage.
If you’re deciding between offers, the “best” package depends on your risk tolerance and whether you value liquidity certainty or upside. See you next week’s edition of Snake Signals!
Hiring? Contact
LinkedIn: Josh Smith, Python Recruitment
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01727 225 552