Your package might also include health club and professional association memberships, travel costs for meetings, tuition expenses for work-related graduate degrees or even a contribution toward child adoption.
Stock is bait.
Stock is used as an incentive to lure new workers into companies and to retain them. It is not used to thank people for a job well done. So, shares are something you work for over time and aren't usually handed to you on day one. Stock options serve to bind you to the company's future and vice versa. Stock isn't served up especially for you.