For employees at private companies, equity compensation is a deferred promise that the company’s success will eventually translate into personal financial gain. According to Morgan Stanley at Work’s most recent State of the Workplace Financial Benefits Study, 67% of employees and 88% of HR leaders at private companies say the prospect of a future liquidity event or IPO is important to them.

However, with the IPO market still navigating uncertain economic conditions, many of those employees are in a prolonged holding pattern because they are invested in an outcome with unclear timing. PwC’s 2026 market outlook suggests that investors remain selective, and companies still need the scale, profitability and operating discipline to come to market on favorable terms. For employees holding equity, that keeps the promise of a future payout intact while leaving the timing of that payoff unresolved. READ MORE