Legal Question in Securities Law in California

Answering this question accurately would require an attorney to have highly specialized knowledge. The question asks about the intersection of securities laws designed to protect novice and shallow-pockets investors, on the one hand, and employment law on the other, i.e., what may an employer give as compensation, and how? Also, a specialist attorney would probably need more information in order to give an opinion, including whether the equity securities were truly being "given" to the employees as additional compensation (more likely to be legal and proper), or is offered to them in substitution for other (e.g., cash) compensation (probably impermissible).