Ensuring employees feel valued usually starts with one thing: salary.
Or as Catherine Nacson, a senior manager of total rewards at Zapier, said: “If you don’t feel fairly compensated, no benefits package fixes that.”
That’s why the people teams at global tech companies Zapier and Toast consistently review salaries, healthcare and other benefits to make sure that employees feel fairly — even competitively — compensated for their work.
At Toast, for example, Alice Chung, vice president and head of total rewards, oversees regular gender and equity assessments to fix any gaps.
“Our goal is to ensure our programs remain fair, competitive and meaningful,” Chung said. “Ultimately, we want our total rewards package to feel like a genuine ‘thank you’ to employees for their hard work and dedication.”
Want to know more about pay, benefits and ownership at Zapier and Toast before you apply? Built In spoke with Chung and Nacson in detail about how their employers go beyond the basics.
Zapier is an AI orchestration platform. By connecting over 8,000 of the most popular work apps, Zapier empowers its users to make the most of the tools they already use.
How does your employer ensure its pay and bonus plans are competitive?
At Zapier, the approach to compensation is simple — we want to be competitive, not average. Base salaries are benchmarked against external tech industry surveys, with pay ranges set so the midpoint sits in the upper quartile for your role, level and country. Total Target Cash (base plus bonus at 100 percent performance) lands there too. We run an annual competitiveness review by region and job family, adjust where we’re drifting and validate equity with third-party reviews. Competitive and equitable aren’t in tension; we hold both as requirements. Where it matters, we go further. In the Eurozone, we anchor pay to one of the highest-paying countries in the zone, intentional for a remote company where cross-border movement is common. In transitioning markets, we set pay floors rather than defaulting to local rates, which often puts us above the upper quartile. We’re fine with that; it’s how you attract and retain high-caliber talent globally. Transparency is core to the model. Zapiens can see their own range and compa-ratio in our HRIS and our internal pay range tool lets them explore ranges across jobs, levels and countries. Pay moves annually through our impact review, anchored to contribution.
Which benefit delivers the most value — and how do you know?
The honest answer — it depends on you, the life stage you’re in and where in the world you’re located. Someone in the United States weighs health insurance completely differently than someone in Australia where it’s largely state-funded. A senior employee with meaningful equity thinks about their stake differently than someone still learning how vesting works. A parent values parental leave differently than someone without kids. Two things do consistently rise to the top.
The first is base pay. If you don’t feel fairly compensated, no benefits package fixes that. Our upper quartile positioning, Eurozone anchor and global pay floors mean you’ll start from a place of feeling valued before the benefits conversation even begins. We validate through annual pay review data and offer acceptance rates; compensation rarely surfaces as a top exit reason.
The second is flexibility. We’re fully remote and async and for most people, that’s the benefit. The ability to work from anywhere, structure your day around your life and be present for the things that matter is something employers still can’t offer. This comes up in both recruiting conversations and internal feedback as a primary reason people join and stay.
Does your employer offer stock or equity and is it considered competitive?
Equity at Zapier is straightforward in its intent: If you help build this company, you should have a real stake in our outcome.
As a Zapien, you receive stock options at hire and at promotion. Grants vest over three years, faster than the four-year standard at most tech companies. After one year, you become eligible for selective annual refresh grants designed to help high-impact contributors keep growing their stake over time. We also invest in making sure you actually understand what you have. Quarterly equity education sessions cover how stock options work, how to think about value and how Zapier’s long-term success connects directly to the potential upside of your grant. Equity is only a meaningful benefit if you understand it, so we don’t hand out grants and hope for the best. The upside grows with the company, making equity a real reflection of the value you’re helping build.
*Zapier is not able to grant stock options in certain countries due to local securities laws or exchange control restrictions. Instead, Zapiens in these countries receive a long-term cash incentive with the same vesting schedule.
Toast provides a single platform of SaaS products and financial technology solutions to help restaurants and retailers run smoothly.
How do you ensure pay and bonus plans are competitive?
We want employees to feel confident that their compensation reflects the incredible value they bring to the table. To do this, we keep pay and bonus plans competitive through a disciplined, data-driven approach grounded in market benchmarking, transparency and ongoing governance. All roles are benchmarked at least annually against leading technology market datasets, with regular calibration using real-time offer and hiring data. This allows us to stay current with market movement, not just annual cycles.
Transparency is very important to us, as it helps ensure fairness and gives employees a clear understanding of their growth potential. We have clearly defined pay bands and we provide employees with personalized pay range visibility in regions where it aligns with local practices and regulatory norms. We also prioritize regular performance check-ins and two formal promotion cycles a year, ensuring there are timely moments to celebrate your success with merit increases, market adjustments and promotions.
Additionally, we conduct regular equity, gender and role-based pay gap analyses to proactively identify and fix any disparities. Our goal is to ensure our programs remain fair, competitive and meaningful. Ultimately, we want our total rewards package to feel like a genuine “thank you” to employees for their hard work and dedication.
Which benefit delivers the most value — and how do you know?
As we think about setting our employees up to thrive and forge their impact, we know a large part of that is caring for their overall well-being. Our benefits packages go beyond the traditional health care offerings because we know there is a lot more that goes into supporting the whole person. Our team evaluates benefits value through three lenses: quantitative metrics, alignment with our values as a company and direct employee feedback.
Our health benefits programs consistently deliver the highest value. We see this through strong participation rates, plan selection patterns, preventive-care and claims utilization and employee satisfaction. We also track sentiment through internal surveys — including our annual engagement survey — and we’re proud that our benefits rank in the top quartile compared to peer companies. This confirms our plans aren’t just competitive; they’re truly valued.
Beyond core health benefits, we are proud to offer additional programs such as mental health support, family fertility support, leave policies and financial wellness offerings. We assess value by reviewing utilization, repeat usage and how these benefits correlate with overall engagement and retention.
Most importantly, we measure and iterate. If a benefit isn’t hitting the mark, we redesign or replace it. If a program is making a big impact, we expand it. This ensures we’re continuously investing in the offerings you actually use and value, thereby driving talent attraction and retention.
Does the company offer stock or equity and is it considered competitive?
Yes. We consider equity a core component of total compensation for eligible roles. It’s designed to be competitive and performance-aligned, allowing employees to share in the success they help build.
We offer equity across eligible roles and levels, carefully calibrating award values to market benchmarks using technology peer datasets. We review grant values, mix and eligibility at least annually to ensure we stay aligned with both external market practices and our internal philosophy.
Just like with our salary and bonus plans, we continuously assess competitiveness using real-time hiring and retention data alongside external benchmarking. This ensures our equity program remains a compelling tool for attracting and retaining talent, while maintaining responsible governance and strong alignment between pay and performance.
