Stock
at least, RSUs
is AFAIK taxed like supplemental income ( https://www.harnesswealth.com/articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-restricted-stock-units-rsus/ ), which is very similar to regular income. Stock options are different though, and maybe this is what you're referring to
I think (???) options can be beneficial to the recipient from a tax perspective vs. other compensation but not an expert...
And then there are capital gains, which is a different, but related, story...
Fun fact, the (rough) conversion efficiency of calories to mechanical joules in the human body (separate from the mechanical to electrical you're referring to) is about 25%
but this is about the same factor as going from calories to joules! So, for a human to put out 13.5 kJ of energy would require about 13.5 food calories (kilocalories).