According to levels.fyi, Microsoft grants about 50-100k (25 percent of their pay?) in stock for their senior engineers each year. Amazon is closer to 200k (which makes up about 50 percent of their pay)
I guess you’re right in that it won’t really affect them, assuming the tax event occurs when the rsu gets vested and not at the sale.
It’d be more likely to affect folks who are in a pre-ipo company, gain a bunch of stock, and then sell it post-ipo. I know several folks at AirBnB who this would have impacted and several at stripe who this probably will impact.
Just adding on: they used to have pensions up until 10 years ago when Boeing pulled them