In California capital gains are taxed as ordinary income. You don’t get any benefit at the state level for capital gains.

Also, under the new federal tax law, many lawyers are classifying their income as qualified business income so they pay much less than ordinary income. This is something that a software engineer working for a company couldn’t do.

When my stock vests, it is treated the same as my salary, and I get hit with an immediate income tax. Capital gains tax only kicks in afterwards, if I decide to hold on to the stock.